Fish managers must weigh trade-offs among cost, speed, efficiency, and ecological adaptation when deciding how to translocate native salmonids to either establish or genetically augment populations. Remote site incubators (RSIs) appear to be a reasonable strategy, but large-scale evaluations of this method have been limited. We used 129 RSIs to incubate >35,700 eyed embryos of Westslope Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi at eight sites within the upper 30 km of the Cherry Creek basin (Madison River, Montana) from 2007 to 2010, after using piscicides to remove all fish. We obtained gametes from 258 parental-pair crosses (164 females and 258 males) from four wild populations and two hatchery broods. All embryos were incubated to the eyed stage in two hatcheries prior to placing them in RSIs. Green-to-eyed egg survivals were higher for progeny of wild-spawned adults (median, 91.0%; 95% CI, 88.7–93.7%) than for progeny of hatchery-spawned adults (median, 81.7%; 95% CI, 74.9–88.4%), and this difference was highly significant (P < 0.01). Over 26,500 fry were counted leaving RSIs. Median embryo-to-fry survival was 75.6% (95% CI, 72.2–79.0%). Fry exited individual RSIs from 8 to 45 d after embryo translocation. Fry survivals differed among years and sites, and year was more important than site in explaining variation in survival. The success of RSI fry introductions was confirmed by annual monitoring of fish abundance, which indicated that abundances of Westslope Cutthroat Trout 5 to 9 years after RSI introductions were equal to or higher than abundances of nonnative salmonids prior to their removal using piscicides.

中文翻译：

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远程站点孵化器孵化野生和孵化场西坡切喉鳟鱼胚胎的评估

鱼类管理者在决定如何迁移本地鲑鱼以建立或遗传增加种群时，必须权衡成本、速度、效率和生态适应之间的权衡。远程站点孵化器 (RSI) 似乎是一种合理的策略，但对该方法的大规模评估受到限制。我们使用 129 个 RSI 孵化了超过 35,700 个 Westslope Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi 的有眼胚胎2007 年至 2010 年在樱桃溪流域（蒙大拿州麦迪逊河）上游 30 公里内的八个地点使用杀鱼剂清除所有鱼类后。我们从来自四个野生种群和两个孵化场的 258 个亲本杂交（164 个雌性和 258 个雄性）中获得了配子。在将它们放入 RSI 之前，所有胚胎都在两个孵化场中孵化到有眼阶段。野生产卵成虫后代的绿眼卵存活率（中位数，91.0%；95% CI，88.7-93.7%）高于孵化场产卵成虫后代（中位数，81.7%；95% CI，74.9） –88.4%），这种差异非常显着（P < 0.01)。超过 26,500 条鱼苗离开 RSI。中位胚胎至鱼苗存活率为 75.6%（95% CI，72.2-79.0%）。胚胎易位后 8 至 45 天，Fry 退出个体 RSI。鱼苗存活率因年份和地点而异，在解释存活率差异方面，年份比地点更重要。RSI 鱼苗引入的成功通过对鱼类丰度的年度监测得到证实，这表明 RSI 引入后 5 至 9 年的 Westslope Cutthroat Trout 丰度等于或高于使用杀鱼剂去除非本地鲑鱼之前的丰度。