Site Fidelity by White Sturgeon in the Columbia River Estuary Near a Pile Dike in the Columbia River Estuary Richard D. Ledgerwood,* Robert J. Magie, and Matthew S. Morris Point Adams Field Station, Fish Ecology Division 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112-2097 dick.ledgerwood@noaa.gov Presented at the PIT-tag Workshop held at Skamania Lodge 27-30 January 2015. Abstract Sturgeon site fidelity near a pile dike in the Columbia River estuary Richard D. Ledgerwood1, Robert J. Magie2, and Matthew S. Morris2. 1. Fish Ecology Division. Northwest Fisheries Science Center. National Marine Fisheries Service. NOAA. 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington, 98112-2097 2. Ocean Associates, Inc. Under contract to Northwest Fisheries Science Center. National Marine Fisheries Service. NOAA. 520 Heceta Place, Hammond, Oregon 97121. We installed an autonomous PIT-tag detection system along a pile dike in the tidal freshwater reach of the Columbia River estuary (PTAGIS site code PD7). Between fall 2011 and fall 2014, the system has detected a total of 71 white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus . Of the 1,617 total fish detected at PD7, only 1% had a period of more than 1 day between first and last detection, and most of these had periods less than 30 d. While the majority of sturgeon had short durations of residency at the pile dike site, five individuals were detected over multiple years and two appeared to reside at the site through late October, when the site was shut down for the winter. Most sturgeon were first detected in May-July (PD7 activated each March), and transient individuals were generally detected for only a few minutes. However, two sturgeon appeared in May-July and persisted, nearly daily, on multiple PD7 antennas across multiple years. We will present information on site fidelity and behavior shown by sturgeon and other species at the pile dike detection site. *Presenter Dick.Ledgerwood@noaa.gov (NOAA Federal)

Columbia River Estuary and PD7 (Rkm 70) Pile Dikes PD7 Bonneville Dam (Rkm 234) PD7 is located in the tidal freshwater portion of the estuary just upstream of the salt intrusion zone and 164 km downstream from Bonneville Dam.

MUX PIT-tag Technology 2013 PD7 Configuration IS 1001 PIT-tag Technology 476 total sturgeon records in 2011-2012, all on bottom coils 20ft x 20ft Wing (18in x18in Mesh) 20ft 20ft x 20ft Wing (18in x18in Mesh) Note. During 2011 and 2012 we detected 13 total sturgeon with 476 total detection records using the MUX Matrix antenna system. There were no (0) detection records for sturgeon on surface coils and 193, 276 and 7, respectively, on bottom coils A3, A4, and A6. After switching to IS1001 equipment coils extended from near surface to bottom and no vertical segregation of behavior was possible. 20ft 20ft 20ft 10ft 10ft 10ft 4ft 10ft 4ft 10ft

Flexible antenna, 8 ft. by 20 ft. This is Coil 06, more on that later 11/13/2018

Flexible Antenna Design and Implementation Flexi-antenna on test frame Flexi-antenna mounted parallel to flow Flexi-antenna mounted perpendicular to flow

PD7 Antenna Orientations and Placement 2014 Orientation of Antennas 1 and 6 Orientation of Antenna 9 Orientation of Antennas 2-5, 7 and 8 Flow 20 ft 8 ft PD7 Antenna Orientations and Placement 2014 Flow 0 ft 100 200 300 400 2 1 6 7 5 4 3 8 9 750 Antenna Number and Placement River Channel Shore

Incomplete These are the total annual tagging numbers for White Sturgeon in the Columbia Basin (PTAGIS species ‘B’ criteria). I note that there are few listed from out of basin (Rogue and Willappa?). Also, lower Columbia Releases (COLR1-3) for 2014 are not yet in PTAGIS. 11/13/2018

Since installation in 2011, we have detected at least 71 sturgeon (migration year 2014 releases not in PTAGIS). Plot are the first observation date (Julian dates) for each fish. 11/13/2018

Transient and Resident Sturgeon At Tagging Mean Length = 867mm, N = 55 Mean Weight = 4,126g, N = 10 Most sturgeon (66 of the 71) were detected for only a few minutes or hours at PD7. However there were 5 individuals that had ‘durations’ (time between 1st and last detection) that were > 1d. Three of these had long durations (seen in multiple years) but still had relatively few interrogations (less than 100) indicating migration pass PD7. There were individuals (2) seen in multiple years with several thousand interrogations indicating residence near the pile dike for several months each year with nearly daily detection records on multiple coils. Annual counts: 1st obs date <1/1/2012 (ie 2011), N = 4; 2012, N = 11; 2013, N = 9; and 2014, N = 47, total unique sturgeon all years, 71

Resident Sturgeon, Temporal Trends, 2014 Released 2011 Near rkm 95 Lengths 920 and 910mm Daily detections (1 second or longer between hits) for individual sturgeon (3D6.0009F919F2). Fish released 11 July 2012 at COLR2 near Rkm 95, 910mm long and weighed 5,200g. Fish first detected 22 July 13 at PD7 and stayed through 30 Oct 13. Fish returned 21 May 14 and last detection to date was 3 Nov 14, the day we shut down the system. Graph above shows the total daily detection distribution all coils in 2014. In total we have recorded 9,860 records of this fish along the dike (8,596 in 2014). 11/13/2018

Transient Sturgeon (Duration < 1d) preferred coils along the pile dike, 2013 and 2014 By removing the resident sturgeon (Not Like "3D6.00087E56F9" And Not Like "3D6.0009F719F2" ) we see that transient sturgeon are likely to be observed on most any antenna across the dike. Coil 01, near the terminus of the dike, had slightly higher sturgeon occurrence than perpendicular coils 04 (2013) and 06 (2014). In 2014, coils 08 and 09 nearer the abrupt depth change near shore (not present in 2013) also had higher numbers of records. 11/13/2018

Resident Sturgeon preferred coils along the Pile Dike, 2014 Shown are the lateral distributions of detection records (non-unique reads0 from two ‘resident’ sturgeon in 2014. Both fish arrived at PD7 on 21 May and were detected nearly daily to fall (top fish through 15 Oct and bottom fish to 3 Nov 14, the date we pulled the antennas. 11/13/2018

99.9% of the records recorded for this sturgeon in 2014 had less than 1 day between adjacent records Is ‘Stugie’ (3D6.0009F719F2) spending so much time in the antenna system as to create potential code collision problems with other fish. I selected for detections on just coil 6 in 2014 (6,938) nearly daily through the season. I subtracted times from adjacent records to show how long he was ‘gone’. The chart shows the distribution of those differences summarized in various frequency bins of the differences listed on x-axis. Over 65% of the adjacent records had durations in the coil of less than 5 seconds (35% of those were less than 1 second apart). During 2014, Sturgie therefore had potent to block coil 06 for about 2 hrs. (sum duration < 5 sec.). It appears that collision is possibly an issue at times. For example, on Aug 4 Sturgie was detected 487 times on coil 6 and the maximum duration of < 5 sec. differences was 20 in a row (= about 100 sec. duration where the coil was likely continuously blocked that day). Sturgie was absent for 8 days between 25 May and 2 June, the longest absence from coil 6 since arrival 21 May to the end of the season in November. There were only 10 instances where he was absent more than a day. Collision with multiple resident sturgeon could be a problem at times. 11/13/2018

Conclusions Since 2011, both Transient (69) and Resident (2) White Sturgeon were detected at PD7. Transient sturgeon were recorded relatively few times annually with short duration but some individuals were detected in multiple years. Resident sturgeon were recorded several thousand times annually and were detected in multiple years. Transient sturgeon were detected passing through a wide range of coils from the terminus of the pile to the near shore (2014 data). Resident sturgeon were detected on a variety of coils but records were greatly biased towards Coil no. 6 perpendicular to the pile dike and about mid-way towards the shoreline (2014 data). Resident sturgeon appear to ‘mil’ and pass both left and right from Coil no. 06. It was rare between 21 May and 3 Nov. for either resident sturgeon to be absent from PD7 for > 1d.

Recommendations Establish PD7 as a permanent PIT-tag interrogation site in the estuary Establish secondary sites to increase sample size and understand patchiness of fish distributions Continue adaption of flexible antenna design to mobile applications Target species Adult and jack salmonids (all species and runs) for travel time and survival to Bonneville or other upstream dams Juvenile salmonids for thalweg to shoreline migration comparison with the trawl system in thalweg Sturgeon, Northern Pike Minnow, Cutthroat, and others (shad?, lamprey?, eulachon? if tagged and released into the /Columbia River Basin

Acknowledgements Richie Graves—NOAA Gary Fredricks—NOAA Blane Bellerud—NOAA Bruce Jonnason—NOAA Gabriel Brooks—NOAA Nicole Tancreto--PSMFC Steve Anglea—Biomark Barbara Sheilds—BPA Brad Eppard—COE Study funded internally by NOAA using BIOP funds. Vessel support by BPA\COE

Draft emailed 23 Jan 15 edit of PSMFC placeholder Draft emailed 23 Jan 15 edit of PSMFC placeholder. Tweaked before presentation. Questions