Avian Predation On Juvenile Salmonids In The Columbia River

"To address concerns over the impact of avian predation on juvenile salmonids in the Columbia River Basin, we evaluated predation probabilities on steelhead, yearling Chinook salmon, and subyearling Chinook salmon by piscivorous birds from 11 different breeding colonies. Salmonid smolts were tagged and released as part of survival studies using the Juvenile Salmonid Acoustic Telemetry System, a network of hydrophones that provided detections of acoustic-tagged fish at various spatial and temporal scales during seaward migration. Fish were released and tracked during passage through a 251 kilometer (km) section of the lower Snake River and lower Columbia River in 2012, a 192 km section of the lower Columbia River in 2014, and a 184 km section of the middle Columbia River during 2014. Detections of tagged smolts at telemetry arrays, coupled with the recovery of tags on nearby bird colonies, were used to quantify where avian predation occurred, when it occurred, and the cumulative impact of predation by colonial waterbirds on the survival of tagged fish. Results were also used to estimate unaccounted for smolt mortality (total smolt mortality - mortality due to colonial waterbirds), which was due in part to factors other than bird predation (e.g., piscine predation, mortality during dam passage, and other non-avian mortality factors)."--From summary.

The primary goal of this report is to assemble and summarize results from previous published and unpublished studies of avian predation in the Columbia River basin (CRB) and to present results from retrospective analyses of data from previous studies to identify long‐term patterns and trends. Results of these analyses are vital for assessing the efficacy of management initiatives to reduce predation impacts on Endangered Species Act‐listed juvenile salmonids by Caspian terns and double‐crested cormorants in the CRB and to inform an adaptive approach that ensures that management objectives are fully achieved and sustained into the future. These analyses are also essential for evaluating how management actions have and will continue to affect populations of piscivorous colonial waterbirds in the CRB and throughout the Pacific Flyway, populations of native species that are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Finally, we hope that this report will serve as a comprehensive repository of results from research, monitoring, and evaluation of avian predation during 1997–2019 and provide a single‐source document on the topic for regional managers, stakeholders, researchers, and the public.

This dissertation focuses on the predator-prey relationship between two species of avian predators, Caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia) and double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus), and one of their important prey types, juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.), in the Columbia River estuary of Oregon and Washington states during the period 1998 - 2007. I used a data-rich bioenergetics framework to estimate juvenile salmonid consumption by these two avian predators, assessed impacts to at-risk salmonid populations by estimating salmonid mortality rates due to avian predation, and estimated potential demographic benefits to salmonids if avian predation were reduced. The managed relocation of the Caspian tern colony from Rice Island to East Sand Island, lower in the Columbia River estuary, reduced tern predation on salmonids from over 11 million smolts consumed annually to 4 - 7 million, but those benefits accrued primarily to sub-yearling Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha). Combined consumption of juvenile salmonids by Caspian terns and double-crested cormorants in the Columbia River estuary was ca. 7 - 15 million smolts per year during 2006-2007, causing an 8 - 17% mortality rate among smolts migrating through the estuary, with higher mortality rates for steelhead (O. mykiss) and coho salmon (O. kisutch). Under a potential management scenario to reduce avian predation by both species, improvements in the average annual population growth rate ([lambda]) of salmonids ranged from 0.4% for sub-yearling Chinook to 3.1% for coho. These improvements are generally less than what is possible from altered hydropower system operation within the Columbia Basin for salmonid populations that are more severely affected by dams. For a few salmonid populations, reduced avian predation might contribute to stabilizing the population ([lambda] = 1), but would need to be part of a broader recovery strategy to ensure population growth and recovery ([lambda] > 1). Climate was an important factor modulating Caspian tern predation on salmonids, with greater consumption of smolts occurring in years of cooler ocean conditions and higher Columbia River flows. Climate did not contribute to variation in consumption of salmonids by cormorants, perhaps due to the larger effect of growth in the size of the cormorant colony during the study period. Due to current trends in colony size (terns: stable, cormorants: increasing) and the planned dispersal of a portion of the tern population, cormorant predation will likely be a more significant mortality factor for Columbia Basin salmonids in the future than will tern predation. A critical unknown factor remains; that is the degree to which reductions in avian predation on salmonids might be compensated for by other salmonid mortality factors.