All, production of "Resident coho" has been steady since the 2002 release year. Fish from Minter Ck, 250,000 (freshwater delayed) get released about July 1st each year, along with about 1 million normal coho released in late April, early May (these go outside). South Sound Net Pens (SSNP) (AKA Squaxin Net Pens) numbers were dropped from 2.6 million in the 90's to 1.8 million in 2000 (about).
In addition, we have tested a few smaller groups (50,000 each of the 1.8 million total) released in late June, rather than the normal June 1 from SSNP to see if that helped any. It did not.
Survivals for yearling fish (all species, wild or hatchery) hitting the salt south of the Narrows have continued to do poorly and are quite variable. This includes Deschutes wild coho, Nisqually wild steelhead, SSNP coho and Percival Cove Yearling chinook (for the blackmouth fishery). Yearlings from north of the Narrows have been doing much better. Oddly zero-age chinook (normal rearing from Deschutes and Nisqually hatcheries), and chum south of the Narrows are doing well. We have been doing radio tagging with the Squaxin tribe to determine what is going on with the fish. So far we don't know much other than fish aren't surviving at very high rates. (big suprise!)
Recent SSNP survivals range from 2-4% (smolt to adult). This dropped with the 1989-1991 releases from an average of 14%! Deschutes wild coho also hit the deck those years (dropping from about 20%), as did Nisqually steelhead, none have rebounded. The releases from Minter have been in the 3-6% survival range, which is considered normal for Puget Sound hatchery coho.
Curt is correct, Puget Sound is changing and has been for a while. We did have good nubmers of residents for several years, recently. Looks like this year is poorer than last. The one thing the "delayed" fish still seem to do pretty well is stay in Puget Sound (some do leave, usually in Jan-Feb). If the food is not here, they don't survival very well and thus don't provide much fishing.
Chum fry will be coming out soon (March) and that has been a food supply, (SRC eat them like popcorn) assuming the floods didn't wash them out of the gravel, but if the residents are not here (either having left the sound or died) it won't make much difference,
Tight lines
Fishbio