Hatchery Salmon vs. Wild Salmon
Count wild fish separately, scientists urge
Six prominent scientists, members of an independent government advisory group, assert that a February federal court decision could lead to the extinction of wild-spawning salmon populations.
Many of the 26 salmon stocks listed as threatened or endangered on the West Coast could lose federal protection as a result of the recently upheld ruling -- which said the government must count hatchery-produced fish when deciding whether their wild kin deserve protection.
"We all looked at the data and concluded for all kinds of reasons that you basically can't replace wild salmon with hatchery salmon," said fishery biologist Ransom Myers, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The six scientists published their opinions Friday in the journal Science. Myers and others in the group said their conclusion was not welcomed by officials with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency responsible for protecting endangered salmon and other ocean-going species.
"We apparently transgressed some invisible boundary," said University of Washington ecologist Robert Paine.
Hatcheries have been a cornerstone of federal salmon conservation since 1930s, when the government began building the system of eight large hydroelectric dams that salmon now must surmount to reach spawning grounds.
Continue reading this story from The Oregonian:
Count wild fish separately, scientists urge
To better understand the wild vs. hatchery debate, read this original story from Tidepool:
Salmon vs. Salmon
