From:     Jimmy Boydstun                    Zane Grey Trout Unlimited                    Phoenix, Arizona   JimmyB@Ravenrods.com

 

 

 

FEDERAL FISH DECISION APPLAUDED BY STATE

 Tuesday, November 13, 2001

 By ERIK ROBINSON, Columbian staff writer

 Let the fish counting begin.

 Gov. Gary Locke and other state officials said they're happy with the Bush administration's decision not to appeal a federal judge's September ruling on hatchery and wild coho salmon in Oregon.

 District Judge Michael Hogan had ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service erred by lumping hatchery and naturally spawning salmon together in a single group, then giving threatened species protection only to the wild fish. In doing so, Hogan stripped Endangered Species Act protection from Oregon coastal coho altogether, an outcome that could effect other salmon runs with strong hatchery populations.

 "The Bush administration made it clear that they are going to support state and regional efforts to recover salmon," Locke said in a statement released

 after Friday's decision. "They recognize, as I do, that it makes no sense to halt our efforts because of a single court decision in Oregon."

 Larry Cassidy Jr., who advises Locke on salmon matters and serves as chairman of the Northwest Power Planning Council, faulted wild fish purists

 for failing to give enough credit to hatcheries that have for decades produced the overwhelming majority of salmon that return to Northwest rivers and streams. "I say they have some value," Cassidy said.

 The Bush administration's decision not to appeal Hogan's ruling has triggered a major review of salmon restoration efforts on the West Coast.

 Cassidy and other state officials take it as a sign the federal government may give some credit to hatchery practices that have been modified recently to more closely mimic nature.

 "If those fish are willing to go all the way through the Columbia, past all the dams, fight their way past the terns, spend three years in the Pacific Ocean, then come back and spawn, they sure have plenty of meaning to me," Cassidy said.

 In the past decade, hatchery practices have been changed to instill fish with some of the characteristics that biologists believe they'll need to survive over the long haul.

 One hatchery, for example, anchors old Christmas trees to its raceway to mimic the natural environment. Others allow smolts to leave in their own time, reducing the risk of a single landslide or flood killing off an entire hatchery class. Rather than dropping food pellets on the surface, where smolts would be easy pickings for the terns and other dive-bombing predators, some hatcheries are going with in-water feeding systems.

 Despite those improvements, biologists point out that salmon raised in the protected steel and concrete environment of hatcheries simply don't survive

 as well in the wild as naturally spawning stocks. In his book "Salmon Without Rivers," fisheries biologist Jim Lichatowich calls those changes "tinkering at the edges" of a system in need of a serious overhaul.

 Despite more than a century of artificial propagation, a report by the power council recently noted that it remains an experimental solution to salmon recovery.

 Meanwhile, the salmon's natural habitat has declined along with its sheer numbers. Although more than 2 million adult salmon returned to the Columbia

 basin this year to spawn a record since counts began at Bonneville Dam in 1938 it's still far lower than the estimated historic highs of 10 million to 16 million before European settlement.

 "The oft-repeated statement that the problems associated with hatcheries are all in the past rings hollow when the historical record is carefully examined," Lichatowich wrote. "Hatcheries have changed over the past century, but those changes have been chameleonlike superficial changes to match the prevailing political and funding environment."

 Federal officials will spend the next year reviewing the hatchery policy. Of the 25 West Coast salmon stocks currently listed as threatened or endangered, 23 are supported by hatcheries, including the Oregon coastal coho.

 Now that the federal government plans to lump hatchery and wild fish together, it could result in several theoretical outcomes.

 Stocks with strong hatchery support could be stripped of federal protection, even if the wild population is hanging on by a thread. Conversely, the government could decide to protect both wild and hatchery-raised fish in a given salmon or steelhead run. That possibility

 raises the hackles of sport and commercial fishermen because new fishing restrictions would come at a steep economic cost.

 Money spent for gas, fishing tackle and hotel rooms amounted to about $18 million last spring alone, according to a study cited by the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association.

 "A lot of the fear is of the unknown," said Steve Grutbo, president of the association.

 Cassidy and other longtime political observers say new restrictions are unlikely.

 Why spend millions of dollars each year to produce hatchery fish if those fish can't be caught and eaten? "Give NMFS credit. They're not stupid," Cassidy said. "They're not doing this so they can go for more listings."

 Meanwhile, Washington officials say they'll continue business as usual. "Protection for these species remains in effect, and this agency's recovery efforts will continue uninterrupted," said Jeff Koenings, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.