I thought about adding another post to the previous thread on SRKW’s and Chinook, but my rant might deserve its own thread.

So here’s another frustrating twist to the SRKW story…..

NMFS is actively trying to increase hatchery production of Chinook to help SRKW, but they are actively discouraging an increase in wild Chinook productivity for the same purposes. This is equally frustrating when you consider that, for fall Chinook (tules), increasing the production of wild fish can occur almost immediately, and it will cost absolutely zero. That’s right - zero. It’s free.

The solution is simple: Allow the hatchery adults access to the spawning grounds so they can spawn.

Lemme explain. There are numerous tribs in the Columbia Basin where WDFW and ODFW have built blocking weirs that prevent adult hatchery Chinook from spawning. Thousands of mature adult fall Chinook are removed from these tribs every year, and are carted away in big crates, destined for cat food or whatever.

For example, at NMFS’s insistence WDFW built a trapping weir on the Kalama River in 2015. This past fall, WDFW removed 10,094 adult fall Chinook from the Kalama River at the Modrow Trap. They returned 1,013 wild Chinook (unclipped fish) to the river to spawn.

But that means 10,000+ fall Chinook were not allowed to spawn. That represents a huge loss of productivity. Plus, the Kalama River was denied the marine-derived nutrients from those 10,000 adult Chinook. Those nutrients could have helped all Pacific salmon that return to the Kalama River, beyond just fall Chinook. Spring Chinook, coho, and summer steelhead would benefit too.

Had those fish been allowed to spawn, the increase in productivity would be almost immediate. We don’t need to build additional infrastructure or hatchery raceways, or holding facilities or anything else. It’s all there. The fish just need access to the spawning grounds.

According to NMFS, hatchery Chinook spawning with wild Chinook represent a genetic risk to the species, so they can’t allow it. Okay, I won’t argue there’s a genetic risk. But by removing all hatchery adults, they’re ignoring the demographic risk to the species AND to the SRKW’s. Plus, I fail to see how increasing hatchery production, as they are suggesting, does not represent a genetic risk, but I digress.

Those 10,000 adults removed from the Kalama River exceed the broodstock needs of any hatchery I know of. So in this single year on this single river, we are destroying at least one hatchery worth of Chinook productivity based on a potential genetic risk.

At the same time, NMFS wants more money for hatchery production!? Don’t they know that Chinook salmon will spawn for free? Really. We don’t have to pay them to do it. And their offspring will feed themselves, find their way to the ocean, provide food for SRKW’s, and the surviving adults will find their way back home. And they’ll do this without asking anyone for a dime.

So why is NMFS asking taxpayers and ratepayers to spend millions of dollars for something the fish will do for free?

The bottom line is that we can increase the abundance and productivity of Chinook almost immediately, provide additional prey for SRKW’s, and do it at zero cost to ratepayers or taxpayers.

Unfortunately this option is not being considered because of a minor to moderate genetic risk. I find that frustrating in the extreme.

Rant over.