Salmon reared in hatcheries, like natural-origin salmon, migrate from fresh water rivers out to the ocean where they continue to grow and mature for several years until they begin to navigate back to their natal stream or the hatchery. For decades, hatcheries in Oregon have tagged their juvenile releases with coded wire tags (CWTs) which are used to identify what populations and runs returning adults belong to. These CTWs can help us describe 1. Where salmon from specific populations migrate to in the ocean, and 2. where they are recovered in freshwater. The marine distribution patterns of salmon are highly correlated to region of origin and may inform stray distribution patterns. Though many hatchery-origin salmon return to their release site or the hatchery, some stray into other streams or rivers. Because hatchery-origin salmon have genetic, behavioral, and ecological impact when spawning with natural–origin populations, there is a constant effort to reduce stray rates in these populations. By looking at the factors that motivate straying–marine distributions, ocean conditions, freshwater variables–we hope to better understand where and when fish will stray.

Specifically, this project is collecting the marine and stray distributions of hatchery-origin Coho and Chinook from Oregon with CWT data from the data repository RMIS. This data will then be compared with marine conditions such as ocean temperature, acidity, and storm events along with fresh water variables of each hatchery such as water availability, salinity, and temperature to examine how each of these aspects relates to stray patterns and if they can be used to help guide stray recovery efforts.