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Fisheries news
Groups threaten suit over hatchery
SANDY (AP) - A 59-year-
old hatchery 20 m iles from
downtown Portland has jumped
to the center of the Northwest’s
salmon debate, with fish advo
cates saying the hatchery threat
ens the Sandy River’s thin runs
of wild fish.
The Sandy Hatchery is part
of a sprawling Northwest hatch
ery system that aims to'compen-
sate for damage to fish runs from
dams in the Columbia River
basin, where taxpayers and fish
ing license holders pay upward
of $80 mil Hon a year to support
hatcheries.
In Oregon alone, 32 hatch
eries released nearly 39 million
juvenile salmon and steelhead
last year, a torrent of fish that
supplies commercial fishermen
and sports anglers when adults
return from the ocean.
After more than three de
cades of hatchery debate, Pa
cific Rivers Council and the
Native Fish Society upped the
ante this week by singling out
the Sandy Hatchery.
The groups filed a 60-day
notice of intent to sue the Or
egon Department of Fish and
Wildlife and the National Oce
anic and Atmospheric Adminis
tration over the hatchery's im
pacts on wild fish and delays in
reviewing those impacts.
NOAA already says it will
accelerate review of the hatch
ery at Oregon’s request, mak
ing it the first to get full scru
tiny under updated standards.
The Sandy River is a prime
spot to recover wild runs listed
under the Endangered Species
Act and to make sure the latest
science on hatcheries gets ap
plied, said John Kober, Pacific
Rivers Council’s executive direc
tor.
Since 2007, two dams have
come down in the Sandy basin,
including the Marmot Dam on
the Sandy’s main stem, giving
fish free passage to some 100
miles of streams.
R atepayers in the city o f
P o rtlan d , w hich dam m ed a
Sandy tributary, the Bull Run
River, to create the city’s drink
ing water reservoirs, are help
ing pay for $100 million of on
going Sandy River »restoration.
“We’ve addressed a lot of is
sues on the Sandy,” Kober says.
“If we address hatcheries we can
recover wild fish and get them
off the endangered species list.”
By using eggs from wild fish,
hatcheries helped keep w ild
Snake R iver sockeye and
chinook populations in north
east Oregon going when their
numbers dipped dangerously
low.
But w ithout proper safe
guards, returning hatchery fish
can “stray” to wild spawning
grounds and breed with wild
fish, weakening productivity,
numerous studies indicate. They
also compete with wild fish for
food and space.
In 2009, a scientific review
group for NOAA concluded
that hatchery fish have lower
survival rates and are less suc
cessful reproducing than wild
fish. Natural spawning of hatch
ery fish “clearly poses genetic
risk to natural populations,” the
group said, as fish fed by hu
mans and raised absent preda
tors bypass the rigors of natu
ral selection.
Fish and W ildlife officials
have improved Sandy Hatchery
to reduce those impacts. The
hatchery produced 1 m illion
smolts in 2010, including coho,
spring chinook and steelhead.
They now mix wild fish into
much of the hatchery stock, in
part to reduce genetic harm if
the fish do stray. They reduced
releases of spring chinook, the
species most likely to stray.
They built an “acclimation
pond” to try to better attune
hatchery fish to their home base.
This spring they’re pütting traps
at strategic points in the Sandy
River to keep hatchery fish away
from wild spawning grounds.
Oregon has moved aggres
sively on hatchery reforms, said
Liz Hamilton, executive direc
tor
o f the
N o rthw est
Sportfishing Industry Associa
tion.
“Some people really do know
how to snatch defeat from the
jaws of victory,” Hamilton said.
“Is this really the best place for
us all to have a batde?”
The Sandy River’s fishing
guides see the hatchery’s results
firsthand. They also help frame
the debate.
Jack Glass, 55, has guided on
the Sandy for 28 years, catch
ing spring chinook but mostly
focusing on hard-fighting win
ter steelhead.
Glass’ fear: Pressure on the
hatchery, combined with tighter
budgets, will further reduce re
leases and cut fishin g even
more. Given limited habitat, he
says, the wild fish “won’t return
in sustainable num bers that
would allow any kind of harvest
fishery.”
“We’re OK with catch and re
lease of wild fish, but we want
to have the opportunity to re
tain a few hatchery fish — that
drives the industry,” Glass says.
Anglers are required to re
lease wild fish. Within limits, they
can keep hatchery fish — distin
guished by a clipped adipose fin.
Fish and W ildlife reports
about 2,100 hatchery steelhead
caught on the Sandy in 2009.
The sp rin g chin oo k catch
dropped to 324 that year, down
from numbers in the thousands
up to 2005, in part because of
the cuts to spring chinook hatch
ery releases.
Jeff Hickman, 29, has guided
on the Sandy for a decade, af
ter years of fishing on the river
before classes at Sandy High
School. His clients are fly fish
ermen, who favor catching and
releasing more aggressive wild
fish.
H ickm an’s fear: H atchery
fish will depress or eliminate the
wild population.
In Puget Sound this Febru
ary, Washington abruptly shut
down all steelhead fishing — in
cluding catch-and-release — on
four key rivers because of low
returns of wild steelhead cov
ered under the Endangered Spe
cies Act.
“Hatchery fish are kind of a
dead end street,” Hickman says.
“I think we need to give the river
a chance to prove itself.”
Fish and Wildlife estimates
about 1,300 wild spring chinook
and 1,400 wild winter steelhead
— both listed under the Endan
gered Species Act — returned to
the Sandy last year. Steelhead
numbers dipped into the 600s
in 2005 and 2006, when counts
at the M arm ot Dam allowed
more accuracy. Both counts are
far below historic run sizes.
In its latest review, Oregon
classed the S an d y’s spring
chinook at “moderate” risk for
extinction; w inter steelhead
ranked “high.”
But wild fish numbers appear
to be trending up, in the Sandy
and b asin w id e, says Todd
Alsbury, a Fish and Wildlife fish
biologist. And more nests in the
Sandy's spawning beds in 2010
indicate habitat improvements
and dam removal are beginning
to pay off.