Panel Calls For Change In Fishing New Approach Needed To Solve Salmon Crisis

With voters deciding Tuesday not to ban most Washington commercial fishing - and with annual fish-spending on the Columbia River alone far exceeding the cost of a new Seattle baseball stadium - a federal panel of scientists is calling for a new approach to solve the salmon crisis.

The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, told Congress on Wednesday that the Pacific Northwest needs to tighten fish harvests, change the way it manages hatcheries and supervise salmon research with an independent “scientific advisory board.”

“If we continue business the way we have in the past,” warned chairman John Magnuson, a zoologist at the University of Wisconsin, “salmon will continue to decline.”

The panel rejected as impractical, however, suggestions to remove dams or lower reservoir levels. It argued barging or trucking salmon around dams, which occurs now, is more cost-effective.

The report offers little cheer, calling efforts to sustain salmon in the Northwest “heroically optimistic” and warning that “even a holding action to prevent further declines will require large commitments of time and money.”

Congress recently moved to cap fish spending by the Bonneville Power Administration at an average of $435 million a year, much of that in lost power revenues as water is spilled over dams. Spending by other agencies pushes the total for salmon past the half-billion-dollar mark each year. A new baseball stadium, by comparison, is estimated to cost $325 million.

“Is (the salmon money) well spent?” asked Don Bevan, a University of Washington professor who headed a team trying to save depleted stocks that spawn in Idaho. “No. Nobody’s in charge.”

Bevan applauded the new report, particularly its recommendation to take funding and supervision of salmon research away from rival agencies and put them under an independent board insulated from politics.

Among the recommendations:

Shift from emphasizing numbers of fish to protecting wild fish and genetic diversity: short-term pain for long-term gain. “That could mean a significant reduction in catch for certain classes of fishermen,” warned Will Stelle, regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Fishing would have to be reduced at sea to allow more wild salmon to escape to spawn in rivers, the panel explained.

Fish hatcheries “should no longer be viewed solely as factories for producing fish” the panel said, but instead be used for research and restoration of wild runs, meaning a short-term drop in production and, again, less fishing.

This switch in emphasis from hatcheries to natural production means more emphasis on watershed restoration - which could curb logging, grazing, agriculture and development - and a new fisheries-management structure that protects salmon from spawning grounds to the ocean and back. Magnuson said the Great Lakes offer examples of this integrated management.

Stelle endorsed the report and said it confirms directions in which fish managers already are heading. He is working to set up an independent scientific advisory board by the end of this year.