Tag Archives: hatchery fish
Longtime lobbyist accused of fishing over the line
A fishing industry lobbyist has had his 41-ton salmon catch confiscated for allegedly fishing in closed waters near Sitka. Bob Thorstenson Jr., a former executive director of Southeast Alaska Seiners Association, was commercial fishing Sunday in Crawfish Inlet when wildlife troopers say he came within 200 yards of a stream. Alaska Department of Fish and Game area biologist Eric Coonradt told CoastAlaska that drought conditions have made the native pink salmon especially vulnerable near freshwater streams. >click to read< 21:41
Hatchery Fish Often Fail in the Wild. Now We Might Know Why
Wild salmon are struggling to get their groove back.,, For years, Canada has tried to help bolster the salmon population by releasing hatchery-raised juvenile fish, or smolts, into the wild. Scientists know these hatchery smolts don’t do well in the wild—the fish tend to die younger than their wild brethren and reproduce less, but it’s unclear why. In a recent study, however, researchers think they’ve hit upon a possible explanation.,, In Washington State, hatchery-spawned steelhead also do poorly in the wild. click here to read the story 12:31
Do humans have it wrong? Treating salmon as commodity may threaten their wild existence
As once-uncountable Northwest salmon stocks have dwindled, humans have tried a number of remedies to bolster or replace the disappearing fish. We’ve caught them at dams and trucked and barged them past obstacles. When the fish return home, we strip them of their eggs, fertilize them in buckets and grow new generations of baby salmon in hatchery raceways. But what if humans have it all wrong? What if those efforts are not just not working, but actually reducing the salmon’s odds of survival? What if hatchery fish do more than just dilute the genetic fitness of the wild, native salmon that evolved to live and spawn in particular conditions in specific stretches of individual streams? click here to read the story 16:00
Wild salmon: Are their best days all behind them?
Chinook salmon returns are setting records on the Columbia this year. But 80 percent are hatchery fish. Thirteen wild salmon populations in the region are listed as endangered and 11 are threatened. The latest threat, warming waters, comes on top of the longstanding dangers of hydropower for salmon. more@crosscut 20:29
National Marine Fisheries Service wants to see at least four Southwest Washington streams identified as wild steelhead strongholds
theColumbian – 
The National Marine Fisheries Service wants to see at least four Southwest Washington streams identified as wild steelhead strongholds with no planting of hatchery fish beginning in 2014. Rob Jones, hatcheries and inland fisheries chief for NMFS in Portland, said determining which streams will be a joint effort between the federal fish agency and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. continued
