Dubya to Decide to BBQ or Bake Last Wild Salmon in Idaho

[JoseCuervo]

My guess is that by June, the ElkGunner will finally be able to decide who he will vote for, based upon this issue. As, after all, this is truly the most important issue affecting us these days, and affecting future generations of Sportsmen.

Geneticists can´t tell the difference between the wild and hatchery salmon swimming up the Snake River toward Idaho in their annual migration.
Yet biologists agree that differences between salmon reared in hatcheries and those that emerge from the gravel of wild rivers are significant. Uniquely adapted to the streams where they live, wild salmon pass their robust survival traits to their progeny. Hatchery salmon are far less productive, biologists say, reduce the fitness of wild stocks through interbreeding, support larger predator populations, and allow increased harvests that inevitably include wild fish.

“When you go out and watch their behavior and calculate their reproductive success, the differences can be profound,” said Rick Williams, a fisheries biologist and geneticist from Meridian.

The debate over the role of hatcheries has raged for more than a century among scientists, political leaders, anglers and Indian tribes. Most agree that hatcheries that use more modern techniques can reduce the impacts of intermixing wild and hatchery salmon and even aid in salmon restoration.

Now a recent legal decision has fueled the debate over the Endangered Species Act. In February, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, that said the federal government erred by counting only wild salmon when determining whether the salmon are endangered. The court didn´t say how they should be counted.

The Bush administration will decide by June how to count hatchery and wild salmon and unveil its review of the status of 26 stocks of salmon and steelhead currently protected under the Endangered Species Act. It also will outline its plans for using hatcheries to help restore salmon and steelhead.

Rob Rivett, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented private property owners, believes the law is clear. Since hatchery and wild salmon are indistinguishable genetically, they all must be counted together. That should reduce the number of stocks protected and reduce the restrictions that are burdening businesses and landowners, who are unable to use their land without certain restrictions.

“If you have a robust fishery, That´s all the ESA can ask for,” he said.

Follow Rivett´s logic and wild salmon could go extinct while only hatchery-reared salmon persist, said six fisheries biologists who served on an advisory panel to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency overseeing salmon recovery. Ransom Myers, Simon Levin, Russell Lande, Frances James, William Murdock and Robert Paine wrote in the March 26 issue of the journal Science that only wild salmon should be counted when determining the risk of extinction.

“Much evidence exists that hatcheries cannot maintain wild salmon populations indefinitely,” they wrote.

The new federal policy, just like the old one, will consider hatchery fish when determining the risk of extinction, said Brian Gorman, a NMFS spokesman. But factors like the extent of native spawning habitat, the threats to survival and conservation measures also are considered.

“The Endangered Species Act is more than just counting fish,” he said.

Pat Ford is the executive director of Save our Wild Salmon, the coalition of sportfishing, commercial fishing and conservation groups advocating for salmon. He believes the reviews are a part of the Bush administration´s overall effort to take advantage of increased salmon returns due to improved feeding and predation conditions for salmon in the Pacific brought about by cyclical changes in currents.

“We have to assume this administration, given their past record, is headed toward politically driven decisions that would ignore the science and lower the bar for salmon protection,” Ford said.

For more than a century, wildlife managers have used artificial propagation to offset the damming of rivers, the destruction of habitat and overfishing. But the approach has failed, says James Lichatowich, a fisheries biologist from Washington who has studied the history of the region´s salmon programs.

“We assumed we could control the biological productivity of salmon and improve upon natural processes we didn´t even try to understand,” he wrote. “We assumed we could have salmon without rivers.”

Last year, 1.5 million adult salmon and steelhead returned to the Columbia River Basin. Eight million to 16 million are estimated to have returned historically.

Yet numbers have risen dramatically since the mid-1990s due to improved ocean conditions. The salmon returns are the highest since dams were built on the Columbia and Snake beginning in the 1930s.

Fish managers are dumping 200 million juvenile salmon into Northwest rivers, many in programs largely designed to meet the demands of anglers. Salmon were domesticated to meet production goals, bred in what Lichatowich calls a feedlot regime, so the fish would all return at the same time and act the same way.

But today, many hatchery programs have been revamped to recognize the value of diversity seen in wild stocks. In the hatcheries, raceways are covered and filled with litter, logs and brush to mimic natural conditions. Salmon for breeding are limited to the local area where they will be released.

One of the most successful programs takes place on Johnson Creek, a tributary of the South Fork of the Salmon river near Yellow Pine. There the Nez Perce tribe has taken eggs and sperm from wild chinook salmon, raised the young in the McCall Hatchery, and then released them in Johnson Creek to begin their journey to the Pacific.

Started in 1998, the salmon have had an entire five-year cycle. Of the 78,000 smolts that were released in 1998, 700 adults returned over a three year period. Together with the return of wild salmon, the returns are near the historic levels for the river.

“It´s quite a bit better than we anticipated,” said Jon Gebhards, a biologist working on the project.

But even with the limited intervention, the hatchery-reared salmon returned at half the rate of wild salmon.

Ernie Brannon, a University of Idaho fisheries professor who supports the Pacific Legal Foundation´s position, said hatchery fish aren´t the problem, hatchery management is. He envisions continued improvement in hatchery practices, including what he calls “engineered streams,” which will more closely mimic wild conditions, he said

But he doesn´t believe the region will ever eliminate the need for hatcheries.

“Unless we eliminate the commercial, Indian and sport fisheries, we will need hatcheries,” Brannon said.

Most of the region´s Indian tribes support aggressive hatchery programs as a bridge to eventually return to solely wild production. They have dismissed the purists among wild fish advocates, even making comparisons to Hitler´s efforts to create a master race. However, they have pioneered much of the new, more sophisticated programs like Johnson Creek.

“One often quoted saying I´ve heard is whether you´re born in a hospital or a teepee, you´re still an Indian,” said Charles Hudson, a spokesman for the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission. “That principle applies to fish too.”

Ford, of Save our Wild Salmon, said there is a difference of opinion among his coalition about the role of hatchery fish. But they all agree on one issue: “Wild salmon and steelhead are what we are trying to save and you can´t have wild salmon without habitat.”

 

[feclnogn]

I prefer my salmon BBQ'd with lemon slices and basil. mmmmmm good stuff. If ya catch any that are left EG let me know and I will pay the postage for you to ship me some. If you would like I will also take a picture of me eating the last wild salon and post it here for your enjoyment.

 

[JoseCuervo]

My guess is Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) already has plans to eat the last Wild Salmon with Dubya.... I doubt they will be sharing.....

One of the most successful programs takes place on Johnson Creek, a tributary of the South Fork of the Salmon river near Yellow Pine. There the Nez Perce tribe has taken eggs and sperm from wild chinook salmon, raised the young in the McCall Hatchery, and then released them in Johnson Creek to begin their journey to the Pacific.

Started in 1998, the salmon have had an entire five-year cycle. Of the 78,000 smolts that were released in 1998, 700 adults returned over a three year period. Together with the return of wild salmon, the returns are near the historic levels for the river.

“It´s quite a bit better than we anticipated,” said Jon Gebhards, a biologist working on the project.

But even with the limited intervention, the hatchery-reared salmon returned at half the rate of wild salmon.

Johnson Creek is an awesome little creek, the first memories I have of fishing are of Johnson Creek, with my Dad and Grandpa. Whenever I smell smoked Salmon or Prince Albert pipe tobacco, I think of the Cabin on Johnson Creek where my Grandparent's spent their summmers, working for the Forest Service.

I have spent hours on that creek, watching Salmon. My daughter's have caught good trout out of that when I taught them how to fish.

Fecl, it is too bad you don't have any passion or care about the right to hunt and fish for future generations. Oh well, luckily for you, I do....

 

[BuzzH]

Gunner, he does, check out his "passion" over hunting noxious weeds (oryx) in New Mexico.

I have to agree with you, the last wild salmon will be a fight between Craig, Kempthorne, and Bush.

I bet between that whole bunch, they couldnt identify a chinook from steelhead, much less know enough to understand management. Between them, they'd have a hard time understanding/managing a bowl full of goldfish and guppies.