Hatchery fish pose threat

Is there such a thing as too many steelhead?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The 2009 steelhead run is on track to smash recent records. That is great news for anglers, but it also presents problems.

Like all years, this year’s run is composed largely of steelhead that were produced in hatcheries – compensation for wild steelhead that die because of the four Lower Snake River dams. In short, they are produced for anglers to catch.

But far more will return this year, which is true of most years, than anglers can or will catch. Those not used by hatcheries to spawn the next generation of steelhead will likely try to spawn in the wild. In some cases, the fish return to areas where they were released. Other times they stray into areas used by wild fish. Neither is necessarily a good thing.

There is evidence hatchery salmon and steelhead, when they spawn with their wild cousins, can erode the genetic traits that help wild fish survive.

“From a harvest perspective, the more fish you have come back, the better the harvest opportunity. That is a benefit of having these mitigation programs to return fish for harvest,” said Joe Krakker, a fishery biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Boise and a member of a hatchery review team sanctioned by the agency. “At the same time, the more fish you have in excess to what you can harvest, if you don’t bring those fish back to a (hatchery) rack and get them out of the system, they can spawn with listed (wild) fish.”

Fisheries scientists are increasingly concerned that abundant hatchery fish are harming wild fish protected under the Endangered Species Act. This year is an extreme example. But it is a concern even in years when salmon and steelhead runs are more modest.

Scientists are considering a range of solutions, including reducing the number of hatchery fish released in some areas, or even trapping excess fish and burying them in landfills.

A team of scientists sanctioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service studying hatcheries in the Lower Snake River is worried hatcheries and the agencies that run them are juggling two competing interests: providing fish for harvest and protecting wild runs.

The recommendations of the team and other reviews of hatchery practices slated to wrap up as soon as next year could change the way hatcheries operate and ultimately the number of fish available for anglers. Many anglers, fisheries managers, politicians and business leaders are worried.

“I think it would be a travesty if they took any action that reduced the fishing opportunities this region has for hatchery steelhead,” said Doug Mattoon, an Asotin County commissioner and avid fly fisherman.

A good example of the problem is on the Grand Ronde River’s Cottonwood Creek acclimation site. Juvenile steelhead produced at the Lyons Ferry Hatchery near Starbuck spend weeks at the site before being released. The goal of hatchery managers is for about 1,500 adult steelhead to return. But thousands more than that actually do.

At the end of steelhead fishing season, those that have not been harvested stack up at a weir on Cottonwood Creek. For lack of anything better to do with them, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials allow as many as 2,000 of the hatchery fish to swim upstream and spawn.

It’s way more fish than the small stream can handle and the hatchery fish are spawning with a small number of wild fish.

In April, when this occurs, the steelhead are in poor shape. Their color is dark, their meat is soft, and as Brad Johnson, an angler and a local watershed planning director for the Snake River from Lewiston put it, “They are not even good for smoking.”