July 2000

Hatcheries have operated in Washington state for more than a century, providing fish for recreational and commercial fisheries. Beginning with one hatchery on the Kalama River in 1895, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) today operates 91 hatchery facilities to provide sustainable fisheries and meet the state's tribal treaty obligations by ensuring salmon are available for harvest.

In recent years, hatcheries also have taken on a new, equally important role: helping recover and conserve the state's naturally spawning salmon populations. This dual focus-sustainable fisheries and wild stock conservation-represents a major realignment in hatchery operations, and is occurring at the same time the department, tribes, federal government and independent scientists are developing a comprehensive operations strategy for all hatcheries in Washington.

WDFW's immediate goal is to ensure hatchery operations comply with requirements of the Endangered Species Act. Long term, the department is seeking funds to put in place much-needed infrastructure improvements at hatcheries. This is a collaborative effort with the tribes, federal scientists and private non-profit organizations such as Long Live the Kings.

Sustainable Fisheries

Washington's hatcheries were originally built to compensate for declining wild fish populations. By the 1950s, they were playing a prominent role in the enhancement of the state's salmon resources. Today, hatcheries are an important economic force statewide and are integral to the North Pacific sports and commercial fisheries, releasing millions of fish annually for harvest. They are also effective for the coast wide management of chinook and coho by providing wild stock analogs for the coded-wire tag program. Coded-wire tag salmon are used to evaluate stock specific fisheries harvest rates and incidental impacts on ESA listed salmon.

• Of the 91 hatchery facilities the department presently operates, 60 rear salmon at some life-stage, while the remainder rear game fish exclusively. Game fish include trout, steelhead and other warm water species.

• In 1999, WDFW hatcheries produced more than 200 million fish.

• In 1999, more than 17 million hatchery chinook, coho and steelhead were released into Washington's coastal waters.

• In the Hood Canal and Puget Sound areas, more than 88 million chinook, chum, coho, sockeye, pink and steelhead were released from state hatcheries.

• In recent years, hatcheries have provided over 90% of the salmon caught inland, and approximately 75% of all coho and chinook. Statewide, hatchery fish account for nearly 90% of all steelhead harvested.

New procedures, wild stock restoration

In recent years, significant changes have occurred in hatchery operations that benefit wild and hatchery fish populations.

In 1991, WDFW and the tribes adopted a statewide salmonid disease policy. The policy's aim is to prevent the importation or dissemination of pathogens known to effect salmon and steelhead. The department also has adopted stock transfer guidelines to maintain the genetic integrity of local broodstock at hatcheries by minimizing the intermingling of stocks. Most recently, WDFW and some tribes have started to clip the adipose fins of hatchery fish so they can be distinguished from wild fish. This "selective fisheries" technique allows fishing to occur without harming wild populations. It also allows scientists to distinguish between hatchery and wild fish when determining and evaluating escapement and other management goals.

As these new polices and practices have been put into place, efforts to use hatcheries for wild salmon recovery have escalated. During the past two decades, the number of state hatcheries involved in some aspect of wild salmon recovery has increased from two to 36. Hatcheries are now viewed by fisheries scientists and policymakers as integral tools for the restoration of wild runs that have dwindled because of habitat degradation or other factors.

Wild stock restoration projects at hatcheries range from rearing a limited number of a stock in a hatchery for a specific period before releasing the fish back into the natural environment, to maintaining the entire stock in a hatchery for an extended period to ensure the stock's survival.

Restoration efforts have taken place on various rivers, including the Dungeness, Nooksack and White. On the White River, the department, utilizing its Minter Creek Hatchery Complex, has successfully resurrected a wild spring chinook stock that faced extinction. Fifteen years ago, when restoration efforts began, fewer than 50 wild chinook returned annually. Now, about 1000 wild fish return each year.

Improving the hatchery infrastructure

Despite these changes and successes, many challenges remain. The state's aging hatchery infrastructure is one. Some hatcheries, for example, pose physical obstacles for young fish attempting to get past the hatchery and downstream. Others prevent spawning adults from getting upstream.

There are scientific challenges as well. Physical and genetic interactions between wild and some hatchery fish (depending on stock origin and culture history) can weaken wild stocks. Interbreeding can result in deleterious genetic effects, while competition for food and other resources between hatchery and wild fish may reduce the number of wild fish the habitat can sustain. Predation on wild fish by hatchery fish may also negatively affect wild fish populations.

The department already has begun to redesign some hatchery facilities to provide safe passage for wild fish to and from natural rearing areas located upstream of hatcheries. And WDFW regularly monitors the discharge from all hatcheries to comply with federal water quality standards. Compliance with these standards, however, has not been met at all facilities due to insufficient funding. In the near future, the department, working with the National Marine Fisheries Services, expects to complete Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans for hatchery operations that can potentially affect listed species. Working with the tribes, WDFW also is constructing a new database that will more efficiently supply resource managers with key hatchery data, and progress continues on a comprehensive, scientifically-based management system to guide state as well as tribal and federal hatchery operators.

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