Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Keith Ingraham, a hatchery specialist, finishes a feeding cycle at the McAllister Fish Hatchery. The hatchery's net pens should be eliminated, a new report says.

Salmon hatchery changes recommended

New report says fish populations have been hurt

N.S. NOKKENTVED THE OLYMPIAN

SEATTLE -- A study released Tuesday would change the way salmon hatcheries are operated -- and could mean closing two local hatcheries.

"You have to make some tough choices," said Jeff Koenings, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Koenings was one of several speakers Tuesday when an independent panel of scientists released the first part of a comprehensive study of Puget Sound and coastal Washington hatcheries.

The Puget Sound and Coastal Washington Hatchery Reform Project released 218 specific recommendations Tuesday.

The scientists reviewed hatcheries and hatchery programs with two goals in mind:

- Continued support of a sustainable fishery.

- Recovery of wild salmon.

The study recommended replacing poorly functioning facilities and ending programs that don't meet the goals, said Lars Mobrand, chairman of the Hatchery Scientific Review Group, which produced the report.

Two facilities that don't meet the goals and are recommended for elimination are the net pens in Percival Cove and the McAllister Creek salmon hatchery -- changes that might have an effect on sport fishing in South Sound.

The McAllister Creek hatchery also is a budget consideration, Koenings said.

If a hatchery causes more problems than it solves, that's a place to make a cut during budget reductions, Koenings said.

The study found that hatcheries have contributed to a continued decline of salmon, in part, by releasing thousands or millions of juvenile fish that compete with wild fish for available food and habitat.

Hatchery fish also can introduce disease and weaken wild stocks by interbreeding with stocks from other rivers, a common practice in Washington hatcheries.

One of the recommended general changes is to use only local brood stock -- no eggs from other basins -- in hatchery operations.

"We've got to go back to using the local brood stock," Koenings said.

Hatcheries can hurt

The state, tribes and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operate about 100 hatcheries in Puget Sound and on the coast.

Most hatcheries were built to compensate for declines in wild salmon populations. But they also have been a factor in the continued decline of the wild fish.

"They've had a profound impact on salmon," said 6th District U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash.

Because of their role in the decline, some have called for a halt to all hatchery operations, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said.

But others have recognized that hatcheries have had some benefits.

One of those benefits has been to provide and support recreational and tribal fisheries where natural salmon habitat has been lost to development, Koenings said.

The study's proposed changes would ensure that hatcheries no longer contribute to the decline of wild salmon.

"Hatcheries do not take the place of habitat. Never have; never will," Billy Frank Jr. said. "We need salmon coming back to our river and our creeks."

Frank is a member of the Nisqually tribe and chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. The tribes support the recommendations, he said.

"We're all in this together," Frank said.

The tribe operates the Kalama and Clear Creek fall chinook hatcheries on the Nisqually River.

Recommendations for these hatcheries focus on continued studies to clarify and improve the relationships between hatchery and wild fish in the river.

Both hatcheries, which together produce about 4 million young fish annually, rely on local fish that return to the Nisqually for brood stock.

Gov. Gary Locke on Tuesday pledged $8 million in his capital budget and as part of his economic stimulus package to make the physical changes necessary in the state's facilities.

"We have to make the investment necessary to reform our hatchery operations," he said.

Less is more?

But changing hatchery operations is not enough, Dicks said. The changes have to include monitoring and assessment "to make sure the goals and standards we set are being implemented."

Fishery managers once thought the ocean was unlimited and that the more fish hatcheries produced, the more fish would return, Mobrand said.

Scientists have learned that isn't true.

South Sound also has limits on the number of salmon it can sustain, and those limits are the subject of further study.

"We don't know the answer," Mobrand said.

In some cases, reducing the number of fish produced in hatcheries might actually result in an increase in the number of salmon that return to spawn.

And that, ultimately, is the measure of success of a hatchery -- not the number of fish released, Mobrand said.

"Thriving fish populations are good business," Koenings said.

More reports due

The report covers three of 10 regions of the state. Reviews of the remaining regions are yet to be completed.

Tuesday's release was organized by Long Live the Kings, a salmon advocacy group selected as an independent third party to oversee development of the hatchery reform strategy.

In May 1999, a group of scientists reported on the potential for hatcheries to help wild salmon, in a few years and at relatively small costs.

The group called for a comprehensive hatchery reform effort to conserve each river's genetic resources, help recover naturally spawning salmon, support sustainable fisheries, continue research, and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of hatchery programs.

The group got the support of then-Sen. Slade Gorton, Murray, Dicks and Locke.

Congress funded the study.

The study's recommendations come at the same time that the National Marine Fisheries Service is rewriting its own hatchery policies, spokesman Brian Gorman said.

"In general, we're pleased that the state and tribes are basing their policy reform on good science," Gorman said.

In the past, hatcheries have been geared basically to meat production.

But relying on hatcheries is dangerous, Gorman said. They make it too easy to ignore the environment.

"If the environment can't support natural wild stock, we have to ask, 'What are we doing?' " Gorman said.

N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5445 and at nnokkent@ olympia.gannett.com.

On the Web:

- Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

More information

To read the complete report on hatchery operations, go online to www.longlivethekings.org, the Web site of salmon advocacy group Long Live the Kings. Click on "Hatchery Reform."

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