Alaska Salmon Ranching, Pro's and Con's
- Thread starter fogged in
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cuttlefish
Well-Known Member
And here’s another link from the same source with a little more detailed summary/breakdown and comparisons of 2019 harvest to 2018 and the five and ten-year averages. https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyfisherysalmon.bluesheetsummary
fogged in
Well-Known Member
Is this a 2001 study???
Lots to read but maybe you can clarify it's value 18 years later.
Or did I miss something?"Prepared by Environment and Natural Resources Institute University of Alaska Anchorage 707 A Street, Suite 101 Anchorage, AK 99501
October 2001"
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Is there something in it that you disagree with?
fogged in
Well-Known Member
Ya, it's 18 years old and I think we best educate our selves with more recent data.
No doubt you can find something more recent...I did a quick check and found this.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2019
https://craigmedred.news/2019/09/12/alaskas-bounty/
Lots of good info to consider.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Are hatchery releases affecting Alaska’s wild salmon?
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2019/09/26/are-hatchery-releases-impacting-alaskas-wild-salmon/
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2019/09/26/are-hatchery-releases-impacting-alaskas-wild-salmon/
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Alaskan 'ocean ranching' damages wild salmon fishery, B.C. conservation groups say
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/vancouv...almon-fishery-b-c-conservation-groups-say/amp
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/vancouv...almon-fishery-b-c-conservation-groups-say/amp
Stephen Kowalski
Active Member
thanks for the post. Interesting reads
fogged in
Well-Known Member
A lot of good info Wildman and there is certainly a case to be made against Alaska Salmon ranching just like a case can be made about BC Hatchery programs.
Your link is a very old story from 2012 though.
This is a more recent link from earlier this year with more interesting information.
https://www.vancourier.com/news/wild-salmon-plan-panned-by-conservation-groups-1.23659257
"The BC Wildlife Federation is concerned that, if the government adopts recommendations of the Wild Salmon Advisory Council, B.C. may follow Alaska on an over-reliance on hatchery production – something which itself may be one of the problems contributing to decreases of certain wild stock species."
There is a strong case to be made against our Hatcheries.
Is it your opinion BC and Washington State Chinook Hatcheries should be shut down as they pose a threat to wild salmon?
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
I think shutting down hatcheries is the next logical progression for the groups to focus on after they shut down fish farms. Hatcheries are also generally against the wild salmon policy.
While im personally for pumping out a lot of smolts from hatcheries and have mark selective fisheries it certainly does not seem to be the direction we are heading in.
https://thenarwhal.ca/will-b-c-s-wild-salmon-strategy-be-a-boon-or-bust/
Will B.C.’s wild salmon strategy be a boon or bust?
The expansion of hatchery production
A recurring theme in the strategy paper is the imperative to expand the production of B.C. salmon from hatcheries, including Alaska-styled coastal salmon ranching. (In the latter, salmon are raised in pens and released by private interests, which then recoup their investment by getting the first stab at fishing when the fish return.)
In a written response to the council, Simon Fraser University salmon biologist Jon Moore sought to correct the council’s “serious scientific inaccuracies” in the report. This includes the assertion that “research is inadequate” to address the potential impacts of hatcheries, including the interactions of wild and enhanced fish in the ocean.
“The science is clear,” Moore wrote to the council, “hatcheries have repeatedly [been] shown to seriously harm wild populations both at broad and local scales.”
In an interview with The Narwhal, Moore said expanding hatcheries can overstep the carrying capacity of the ocean.
“The science is increasingly strong showing that the ocean is at capacity when it comes to salmon, and that adding more hatchery fish has really negative effects on wild stocks.”
This said, hatcheries have a future role to play in B.C., Moore said — as a last resort to keep endangered runs from going extinct, and in cases where habitat has been devastated, like on the Capilano River in North Vancouver, where hatcheries now provide fish for First Nations and sport in the wake of dam construction.
“Our point is not to shut down all hatcheries, it’s just that caution is needed when thinking about ramping up [production], if the goal is to conserve wild salmon.”
Machin echoes this point. “It’s a very complex interaction between wild and enhanced [salmon] populations, and that’s something that we’d really caution the province about, to take a little bit more time to reflect on that.”
New viruses discovered in endangered wild Pacific salmon populations
https://science.ubc.ca/news/new-viruses-discovered-endangered-wild-pacific-salmon-populations
“We found the new viruses widely distributed in dead and dying farmed salmon and in wild salmon,” said UBC virologist Curtis Suttle. “It emphasizes the potential role that viral disease may play in the population dynamics of wild fish stocks, and the threat that these viruses may pose to aquaculture.”
One new virus, detected more commonly in salmon hatcheries, infected more than 15 per cent of all hatchery Chinook tested."
https://elifesciences.org/articles/47615#digest
"
The distribution and abundance of the different viruses varied markedly. Arenaviruses were relatively common (Figure 2—figure supplement 1) and geographically widespread in migratory juvenile Chinook and sockeye salmon in the marine environment (Figure 2, Figure 2—figure supplement 2). Whereas, the nidovirus was spatially localised and predominantly observed at high prevalence over multiple years in Chinook salmon leaving freshwater hatcheries (Figure 2). Finally, the reovirus was detected only in farmed Chinook salmon (Figure 2 and Figure 2—figure supplement 1).
With the exception of their relatively recent discovery in snakes (Stenglein et al., 2012) and frogfish (Shi et al., 2018), arenaviruses were thought to solely infect mammals. The arenaviruses reported here share less than 15% amino-acid sequence similarity (in the RdRp) to those from mammals and snakes, and define a new monophyletic evolutionary group, the pescarenaviruses (Figure 1A). The absence of clear sequence homology in the glycoprotein, the difference in genome segmentation (Shi et al., 2018), as well as phylogenetic analysis of the replicase demonstrate that pescarenaviruses share a common but ancient ancestor with arenaviruses infecting snakes and mammals. We recommend these fish-infecting arenaviruses are assigned to the new genus Pescarenavirus, with those infecting Chinook and sockeye salmon being assigned to the species Salmon pescarenavirus (SPAV), strains 1 and 2, respectively."
While im personally for pumping out a lot of smolts from hatcheries and have mark selective fisheries it certainly does not seem to be the direction we are heading in.
https://thenarwhal.ca/will-b-c-s-wild-salmon-strategy-be-a-boon-or-bust/
Will B.C.’s wild salmon strategy be a boon or bust?
The expansion of hatchery production
A recurring theme in the strategy paper is the imperative to expand the production of B.C. salmon from hatcheries, including Alaska-styled coastal salmon ranching. (In the latter, salmon are raised in pens and released by private interests, which then recoup their investment by getting the first stab at fishing when the fish return.)
In a written response to the council, Simon Fraser University salmon biologist Jon Moore sought to correct the council’s “serious scientific inaccuracies” in the report. This includes the assertion that “research is inadequate” to address the potential impacts of hatcheries, including the interactions of wild and enhanced fish in the ocean.
“The science is clear,” Moore wrote to the council, “hatcheries have repeatedly [been] shown to seriously harm wild populations both at broad and local scales.”
In an interview with The Narwhal, Moore said expanding hatcheries can overstep the carrying capacity of the ocean.
“The science is increasingly strong showing that the ocean is at capacity when it comes to salmon, and that adding more hatchery fish has really negative effects on wild stocks.”
This said, hatcheries have a future role to play in B.C., Moore said — as a last resort to keep endangered runs from going extinct, and in cases where habitat has been devastated, like on the Capilano River in North Vancouver, where hatcheries now provide fish for First Nations and sport in the wake of dam construction.
“Our point is not to shut down all hatcheries, it’s just that caution is needed when thinking about ramping up [production], if the goal is to conserve wild salmon.”
Machin echoes this point. “It’s a very complex interaction between wild and enhanced [salmon] populations, and that’s something that we’d really caution the province about, to take a little bit more time to reflect on that.”
New viruses discovered in endangered wild Pacific salmon populations
https://science.ubc.ca/news/new-viruses-discovered-endangered-wild-pacific-salmon-populations
“We found the new viruses widely distributed in dead and dying farmed salmon and in wild salmon,” said UBC virologist Curtis Suttle. “It emphasizes the potential role that viral disease may play in the population dynamics of wild fish stocks, and the threat that these viruses may pose to aquaculture.”
One new virus, detected more commonly in salmon hatcheries, infected more than 15 per cent of all hatchery Chinook tested."
https://elifesciences.org/articles/47615#digest
"
The distribution and abundance of the different viruses varied markedly. Arenaviruses were relatively common (Figure 2—figure supplement 1) and geographically widespread in migratory juvenile Chinook and sockeye salmon in the marine environment (Figure 2, Figure 2—figure supplement 2). Whereas, the nidovirus was spatially localised and predominantly observed at high prevalence over multiple years in Chinook salmon leaving freshwater hatcheries (Figure 2). Finally, the reovirus was detected only in farmed Chinook salmon (Figure 2 and Figure 2—figure supplement 1).
With the exception of their relatively recent discovery in snakes (Stenglein et al., 2012) and frogfish (Shi et al., 2018), arenaviruses were thought to solely infect mammals. The arenaviruses reported here share less than 15% amino-acid sequence similarity (in the RdRp) to those from mammals and snakes, and define a new monophyletic evolutionary group, the pescarenaviruses (Figure 1A). The absence of clear sequence homology in the glycoprotein, the difference in genome segmentation (Shi et al., 2018), as well as phylogenetic analysis of the replicase demonstrate that pescarenaviruses share a common but ancient ancestor with arenaviruses infecting snakes and mammals. We recommend these fish-infecting arenaviruses are assigned to the new genus Pescarenavirus, with those infecting Chinook and sockeye salmon being assigned to the species Salmon pescarenavirus (SPAV), strains 1 and 2, respectively."
fogged in
Well-Known Member
So is it safe to say you are in favor of BC hatcheries, but not yet prepared to endorse Salmon Ranching?
AND you seem to be recognizing the direction we are hopefully going in to remove Open Net Pen Atlantic Fish Farms.
I don't see the connection you seem to be making to BC Hatcheries and closing Fish Farms....but certainly do see why some Fish Farm supporters would like to link the two.
On and On it goes....Your opinion is always appreciated!
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
https://www.raincoast.org/2019/02/provincial-wild-salmon-secretariat-needs-a-focus-on-habitat/
Provincial Wild Salmon Secretariat needs a focus on habitat
While the report gives a nod to the problems of hatcheries, it overlooks why the pursuit of hatcheries and ocean ranching compromises the likelihood of keeping wild salmon on the landscape into the future. It lacks a full understanding of the way hatcheries undermine the survival of wild salmon, or how repeatedly allowing hatchery fish to spawn erodes genetic diversity. Studies indicate the reduction in fitness of hatchery salmon that spawn in the wild is not expected to recover quickly, if at all, in part because hatchery fish are continually being added to the spawning grounds.
The plan to initiate ocean ranching is analogous to adding more cattle to an over grazed field when the goal is to restore bison.
A federal review of Chinook in southern BC found compatibility issues between the objectives of their Wild Salmon Policy and elements of their Salmonid Enhancement Program. The review identified Vancouver Island hatchery programs to be operating at serious odds with the principles of wild salmon conservation. They also found risks to wild salmon were created by the high proportions of hatchery Chinook, corresponding low proportions of wild Chinook, and the extensive straying of hatchery Chinook. This caused significant genetic change and homogenization of previously wild salmon, leading to the loss of locally adapted populations. Thus, using a hatchery to rebuild depleted wild salmon while continuing to fish on them does not work; it only drives the depleted wild populations closer to extinction. Hatcheries can only help depleted populations when they are done in conjunction with fisheries closures.
These criticisms of hatcheries have not touched on ecological interactions and the ocean’s limited capacity to support more hatchery salmon, a factor that may be influencing the abundance, size and productivity of Chinook and other salmon. In this sense, the plan to initiate ocean ranching is analogous to adding more cattle to an over grazed field when the goal is to restore bison. Perhaps now is the time to develop a coordinated approach with other salmon nations to steward the commons of the North Pacific Ocean.
Sadly, the Secretariat’s report also misses the mark on habitat. Ongoing habitat loss has unfolded because of the conflicting mandates between ministries charged with land development and resource extraction, and the meagre efforts of individuals charged with protecting salmon habitat. These conflicting mandates need to be harmonized under an objective that prioritizes watershed resilience. The most important thing the province could do is co-ordinate land use regulation and planning across federal, provincial, municipal and other jurisdictions.
Provincial Wild Salmon Secretariat needs a focus on habitat
While the report gives a nod to the problems of hatcheries, it overlooks why the pursuit of hatcheries and ocean ranching compromises the likelihood of keeping wild salmon on the landscape into the future. It lacks a full understanding of the way hatcheries undermine the survival of wild salmon, or how repeatedly allowing hatchery fish to spawn erodes genetic diversity. Studies indicate the reduction in fitness of hatchery salmon that spawn in the wild is not expected to recover quickly, if at all, in part because hatchery fish are continually being added to the spawning grounds.
The plan to initiate ocean ranching is analogous to adding more cattle to an over grazed field when the goal is to restore bison.
A federal review of Chinook in southern BC found compatibility issues between the objectives of their Wild Salmon Policy and elements of their Salmonid Enhancement Program. The review identified Vancouver Island hatchery programs to be operating at serious odds with the principles of wild salmon conservation. They also found risks to wild salmon were created by the high proportions of hatchery Chinook, corresponding low proportions of wild Chinook, and the extensive straying of hatchery Chinook. This caused significant genetic change and homogenization of previously wild salmon, leading to the loss of locally adapted populations. Thus, using a hatchery to rebuild depleted wild salmon while continuing to fish on them does not work; it only drives the depleted wild populations closer to extinction. Hatcheries can only help depleted populations when they are done in conjunction with fisheries closures.
These criticisms of hatcheries have not touched on ecological interactions and the ocean’s limited capacity to support more hatchery salmon, a factor that may be influencing the abundance, size and productivity of Chinook and other salmon. In this sense, the plan to initiate ocean ranching is analogous to adding more cattle to an over grazed field when the goal is to restore bison. Perhaps now is the time to develop a coordinated approach with other salmon nations to steward the commons of the North Pacific Ocean.
Sadly, the Secretariat’s report also misses the mark on habitat. Ongoing habitat loss has unfolded because of the conflicting mandates between ministries charged with land development and resource extraction, and the meagre efforts of individuals charged with protecting salmon habitat. These conflicting mandates need to be harmonized under an objective that prioritizes watershed resilience. The most important thing the province could do is co-ordinate land use regulation and planning across federal, provincial, municipal and other jurisdictions.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
The Failure of Wild Salmon Management: Need for a Place-Based Conceptual Foundation
https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/fsh.10062
Salmon hatcheries are not a solution because they create additional problems. For instance, large-scale hatcheries that utilize monocultural generic broodstocks allow salmon managers to postpone directly addressing the loss of freshwater and estuarine habitat due to dams, reservoirs, revetments, and water extractions (Lichatowich 1999). Salmon hatcheries also subsidize the growing commercial mixed-stock fisheries at the cost of ignoring the diversity and locally adapted character of the salmon (Lichatowich 1999). Stray or surplus hatchery fish interbreed with wild fish, reducing fitness (productivity) of the wild populations, even in one generation (Christie et al. 2014; see also Hatchery Scientific Review Group 2009:29–32). Though rarely quantified, the return on investment of hatcheries is stark in economic terms. For example, the roughly US$400 million in public funds spent annually on some 177 hatchery programs in the U.S. Columbia River basin (NMFS 2014) return far less than 1% per dollar invested, as measured in terms of the numbers and value of adult fish returning to the target areas (The Research Group 2008). The record for in-river habitat enhancements is no better (Bernhardt et al. 2005).
https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/fsh.10062
Salmon hatcheries are not a solution because they create additional problems. For instance, large-scale hatcheries that utilize monocultural generic broodstocks allow salmon managers to postpone directly addressing the loss of freshwater and estuarine habitat due to dams, reservoirs, revetments, and water extractions (Lichatowich 1999). Salmon hatcheries also subsidize the growing commercial mixed-stock fisheries at the cost of ignoring the diversity and locally adapted character of the salmon (Lichatowich 1999). Stray or surplus hatchery fish interbreed with wild fish, reducing fitness (productivity) of the wild populations, even in one generation (Christie et al. 2014; see also Hatchery Scientific Review Group 2009:29–32). Though rarely quantified, the return on investment of hatcheries is stark in economic terms. For example, the roughly US$400 million in public funds spent annually on some 177 hatchery programs in the U.S. Columbia River basin (NMFS 2014) return far less than 1% per dollar invested, as measured in terms of the numbers and value of adult fish returning to the target areas (The Research Group 2008). The record for in-river habitat enhancements is no better (Bernhardt et al. 2005).
Stephen Kowalski
Active Member
I think you are onto the issue I have with ranching wmy. We are lighting our hair on fire and Alaska is absolutely bloating the system for their benefit only. Not sure why the entire global salmon industry isn't working on a base line of how many salmon can the entire system support, but Alaska is taking 2.5X the amount of salmon vise a vie ranching than ever existed in the wild. I kept asking others what would happen if we shut down the FF's. Would our salmon return? No one has a clear answer, just that they are bad. Ok, but there is bad and really bad. This looks like potential end of times bad to me.
Have you found out what the return rates look like in comparison to Canadian systems? I am curious to see if an Alaskan river sends 100 million smolts out to sea, how many come back for harvesting (percentage wise)? Equally, we could compare that return rate to that of Canadian systems where the smolts interact with FF's. The hypothesis is that FF's infect the smolts with lice and disease and they are more likely to die. What if our return rates are similar or even better? Thanks for putting some effort into this.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
The further north you go the better the return rates and it's been trending that way for a while. Beamish would blame it on the climate, others blame it on FF
Stephen Kowalski
Active Member
But didn't California have a huge return this year?
Stephen Kowalski
Active Member
2019's Oregon Coho Salmon Run Is Largest In Recent Years
https://www.benzinga.com/pressrelea...on-coho-salmon-run-is-largest-in-recent-years
California sails toward biggest salmon harvest in years
https://www.apnews.com/c643b3ae28dc49e28e84f3b93e6f10d2
https://www.benzinga.com/pressrelea...on-coho-salmon-run-is-largest-in-recent-years
California sails toward biggest salmon harvest in years
https://www.apnews.com/c643b3ae28dc49e28e84f3b93e6f10d2
mbowers
Well-Known Member
That further reinforces the impact of Alaskan ranching. California salmon typically do not migrate to Alaska but stay south off California so they are not impacted by the competition with Alaskan ranched fish.
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
You see where that was going.. More NGO ******** drivel pushing the hidden agenda.
- Equally at the heart of the wild salmon problem are ocean-based fisheries.
- Thus, using a hatchery to rebuild depleted wild salmon while continuing to fish on them does not work;
- Raincoast is part of a First Nations and federally led initiative to address the declining status of Chinook in southern BC.
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