Washington ending steelhead hatchery Programs?
- Thread starter Derby
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Fish Assassin
Crew Member
That's just stupid.... Just release the fish and tell them to prove the caused damage 
OldShoreFisherman
Active Member
Yikes!
Setting aside the question of whether hatchery programs are threatening the wild steelhead population and acknowledging I'm not quite sure whether a "state catch sampler" has any official role, the seventh photo in the series showing that idiot hoisting a wild steelhead over his head makes me cringe. And I don't even want to think about that residue on his sweater!
Setting aside the question of whether hatchery programs are threatening the wild steelhead population and acknowledging I'm not quite sure whether a "state catch sampler" has any official role, the seventh photo in the series showing that idiot hoisting a wild steelhead over his head makes me cringe. And I don't even want to think about that residue on his sweater!
There's a long discussion of this on the Piscatorial Pursuits website. In brief - "The Wild Fish Conservancy has issued a 90-day intent to sue the WDFW under the citizen suit provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act. They first sued the WDFW in 2002 for operating their hatcheries without a permit from NOAA (a potential violation of the Endangered Species Act). At that time, a settlement was reached where the Wild Fish Conservancy agreed to drop the suit for 10 years while the WDFW obtained permits. In that time, NOAA did not prioritize WDFW's permit requests and the permits were never issued. Now that the 10-year “cease fire” has passed, the Wild Fish Conservancy has indicated that they will continue their legal action." So the hatchery program operated by the WDFW had 10 years to obtain permits, did not do so and is now getting sued to force them to do so. Doing so will likely result in some modification of the program to conform with the ESA. See - http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/...90646/all/Lawsuit_over_PS_Steelhead_hatc.html for more discussion.
Big Green Machine
Well-Known Member
There's quite a bit of research supporting this, sad as it may be for the sport angler, why can't they increase retention limits of the hatchery fish first or maybe this has been tried already.
Big Green Machine
Well-Known Member
They just keep limping along you're right, no hatchery, except for the Cowie and Stamp of course. We need some kind of change but nobody has figured it out really
OldShoreFisherman
Active Member
The Cowichan hatchery program ended a number of years ago -- 2008, I think, or maybe even earlier.
Big Green Machine
Well-Known Member
When it comes to Wild Steelhead, nothing appears to be working, because nothing has been tried on a grand scale. Sure the SSBC does great work around habitat restoration among others, but we need an ace in the hole at the Provincial level. It seems the strategy is built on a hope and a prayer.
searun
Well-Known Member
No doubt the biggest issue is ocean survival. Most likely a combination of things like predation due to seals, hake and near shore food availability changes from changes to the ocean (acidity, temps etc).
At the SFAB South Coast meeting there were some very interesting science presentations on moving away from smolt release programs towards fry programs with fewer fish released. Seems that there is some recent work on coho fry release as opposed to smolt release that is showing higher (slightly) survival rates. There's nothing wrong with hatcheries per se, the thing that is wrong is flooding the ocean with smolts rather than trying to mimic mother nature as closely as possible to teach these fish some survival skills. I also saw some cool stuff showing the fry plant survival rate on the Puntlege River - they are now placing fry up in un-used habitat and seeing some good initial results.
Also interesting, they are playing with different smolt release timing (on those rivers with smolt programs) and finding that delayed release timing is working. Probably because the fish are coming out into the ocean after the predators have given up and moved on, or possibly there is more groceries to eat because they aren't in competition with all the other wild smolts migrating out in April and early May.
That is precisely the type of thinking that is going to result in finding some of the right keys to success, as opposed to what the Province of BC has done with their Ostrich (stick my head in sand) approach and doing nothing. Both extremes (full on hatchery smolt program or Ministry of Do Nothing) are simply wrong headed in my opinion. What we need is a balanced approach.
At the SFAB South Coast meeting there were some very interesting science presentations on moving away from smolt release programs towards fry programs with fewer fish released. Seems that there is some recent work on coho fry release as opposed to smolt release that is showing higher (slightly) survival rates. There's nothing wrong with hatcheries per se, the thing that is wrong is flooding the ocean with smolts rather than trying to mimic mother nature as closely as possible to teach these fish some survival skills. I also saw some cool stuff showing the fry plant survival rate on the Puntlege River - they are now placing fry up in un-used habitat and seeing some good initial results.
Also interesting, they are playing with different smolt release timing (on those rivers with smolt programs) and finding that delayed release timing is working. Probably because the fish are coming out into the ocean after the predators have given up and moved on, or possibly there is more groceries to eat because they aren't in competition with all the other wild smolts migrating out in April and early May.
That is precisely the type of thinking that is going to result in finding some of the right keys to success, as opposed to what the Province of BC has done with their Ostrich (stick my head in sand) approach and doing nothing. Both extremes (full on hatchery smolt program or Ministry of Do Nothing) are simply wrong headed in my opinion. What we need is a balanced approach.
I totally agree. I'm guessing the money that isn't going into hatcheries is not being redirected into other conservation schemes. Should be going into habitat refurbishment and protection and maybe a small amount into small "community" type hatcheries.
OldBlackDog
Well-Known Member
It is interesting that DFO has cut hundred of thousands of coho from their hatchery programs.
Do not see any discussion or concern on that?
DFO has now cut back your chances of retaining a coho due to the cuts on clipped stock available.
Not a concern i guess.
Do not see any discussion or concern on that?
DFO has now cut back your chances of retaining a coho due to the cuts on clipped stock available.
Not a concern i guess.
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