This Year’s Smolt Arrive for Acclimation
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Smolt acclimated at the Winchester Bay STEP site will instinctively return, as adults, to the site as an artificially pre-determined spawning location. By doing so, STEP salmon will not swim upriver to compete with wild populations on the spawning grounds. They linger in the boat basin creating a ” terminal fishery” and are captured as “Brood Stock” to reproduce offspring for 2023.