VIEWPOINT: Salmon recovery plan not enough
BRYAN IRWIN
It makes no sense to destroy wild salmon at the same time we’re “restoring” them.
Record public and private investments to resuscitate endangered Puget Sound chinook salmon runs are being undermined by unsustainable harvest and hatchery management practices that are driving our remaining wild salmon populations closer to extinction.
While state and federal agencies often concede the need for change, they have been unwilling to reform how salmon harvests and hatcheries are managed. Their refusal to act is especially troubling when compared to the changes being made to protect and restore salmon habitat.
Puget Sound chinook salmon have been listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act for almost 10 years. During this time, federal, state and local governments have spent millions to protect and restore habitat and are instituting major restrictions on private landowners, the construction of roads, docks and bulkheads, and stormwater and septic collection in the name of endangered Puget Sound Chinook salmon recovery.
For the most part, the public has been willing to support these expenditures and restrictions in order to recover salmon. The region’s residents understand that salmon are an integral part of our culture and our history.
But it’s unlikely that the public will continue to support salmon recovery efforts once they understand that wild salmon will not and cannot be recovered under current harvest rates that can exceed 80 percent and with hatchery management practices endangering wild populations. Unfortunately, federal, state and tribal officials are nearing completion of a new plan that is likely to continue these unsustainable practices in spite of the dire conditions facing these populations.
In 2004, a congressionally established independent science group, the Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG), provided a report to Congress that clearly stated that unless fisheries managers reduce harvest rates on wild salmon while also significantly limiting the number of hatchery fish that stray into our streams and rivers and spawn with wild fish, there is simply no chance of recovering Puget Sound chinook salmon. They provided a similar report for the Columbia River to Congress earlier this year.
According to the HSRG – as well as a growing list of other scientific studies – excessive spawning of hatchery fish with wild fish diminishes the survival of their offspring and thereby impedes the recovery of the wild species.
Wild salmon evolved over thousands of years in the streams and rivers they inhabit. They are genetically programmed for those streams and rivers. Hatchery fish degrade the genetic fitness of wild fish and reduce the chances that their offspring will survive in these very same streams and rivers.
In short, according to the scientists, no matter how much we spend restoring and protecting salmon habitat or improving the hydropower system, we cannot recover wild salmon until we protect wild fish and reduce the number of hatchery fish reaching the spawning grounds.
There are two possible solutions to this problem. One is to drastically reduce hatchery production and salmon harvests. Another is to selectively harvest the many excess hatchery fish before they can spawn with the wild fish. Selective harvest means that fishers are able to identify hatchery salmon from wild salmon and release the wild salmon alive.
This distinction is easy since all hatchery chinook and coho salmon in Puget Sound have their adipose fin removed. Wild salmon do not.
However, under the current Puget Sound harvest- management plan approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, neither of these options is required. Furthermore, the state and the tribes are in the final weeks of developing a new plan, which will be in effect for up to 10 years. The plan continues the same deleterious harvest and hatchery practices that scientists have repeatedly warned must stop if we are serious about salmon recovery.
The public deserves full disclosure and correction of these problems.
To date, the state, federal and tribal fisheries managers have been less than forthcoming about the need to make needed reforms. Whether it is the federal National Marine Fisheries Service, the governor or Congress, someone must provide leadership to develop a scientifically-defensible plan.
Otherwise, salmon recovery is nothing more than a slogan. We will continue to spend millions of dollars on salmon habitat and hydropower improvements. We will continue to restrict all human activities in our communities that are thought to impair salmon and their habitat; all human activities that is except hatchery and harvest management. And, sadly, salmon recovery will be doomed to fail.
Bryan Irwin is the executive director of Coastal Conservation Association (
www.ccapnw.org) in the Pacific Northwest.
