White River National Fish Hatchery, Bethel, Vt., to create ten genetically marked groups of Atlantic salmon fry by mating known broodstock family groups. In the fall of 2002, 2.68 million eggs were marked in this way. This spring, 1.9 million of these marked Atlantic salmon fry were stocked into ten different tributary regions of the Connecticut River basin.

The program has been an ongoing research partnership between the hatchery and the U.S. Geological Survey's Conte Anadromous Fish Research Lab for developing a nonlethal marking tool for fishery managers. The original genetic analysis was done on the returning sea-run Atlantic salmon held at the Richard Cronin Salmon Station, Sunderland, Mass., and at Connecticut's Whittemore Salmon Station. These deliberate crosses created over 90 families. Portions of each of these families were separated and retained for future broodstock at White River. Later, tags were inserted into the same fish for family identification and, after the fish matured, used to make deliberate matings between family groups.

All told, White River hatchery broodstock has produced 4.8 million eggs. Total incubation was 6.9 million green eggs. Total Atlantic salmon fry stocked into the Connecticut River basin was 4.6 million.

NORTHEAST REGION, U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE -- Conserving the Nature of the Northeast