WA has cut its hatchery production by almost 50% since 1985. In a broad sense, those cuts also track the decline in the SRKW population, the decline of natural origin spawners, and the reduction in harvest opportunities for all parties.

We cannot forget, too, the impacts of predation by fish, birds, and pinnipeds on both the out-migrants and returning adults.

Lastly, what have been the impacts of the mixing of salmon stocks by old hatchery practices?

One example is the out of basin movement of over 40 million Chinook eggs from the Green River hatchery between 1980 and 1987 to 12 different river basins in Puget Sound. In total, statewide, WDF transferred over 277 million eggs out of basin in those years. Roughly 180 million were distributed in Puget Sound, 75 million in the Columbia, and 16 million in the coastal rivers. These numbers do not include tribal, federal, or cooperative hatcheries.

From the 2006 NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NWFSC-78 titled “Independent Populations of Chinook Salmon in Puget Sound”, they say for the Stillaguamish (North and South Forks) that the “Early run diversity form is extinct; not clear whether this form represented an historically independent population” and for the main stem they say “Historical and current status are unknown; no evidence that this form represented an historically independent population”. For Mid-Hood Canal they say the late run “Historical diversity in late run is no longer extant” and for the early run “Early run diversity form is extinct”.

In a different time frame, 1952 to 1973, WDF planted 250K spring Chinook and 22.4 million fall Chinook in the Stillaguamish between 1952 and 1973. The point source for those fish isn’t known.From the same stocking report, the Hamma Hamma received 275K fall Chinook, the Dosewallips received 587K spring Chinook and 3.2 million fall Chinook,and the Duckabush received 1.3 million + fall Chinook. The source(s) for these fish is unknown.

Are we really saving “wild” fish or are we trying to save natural spawning populations? I ask that question because of WDF/WDG/WDFW hatchery practices that have planted billions of salmon in over 600 creeks, streams, rivers, and lakes in this state over the past 120 years. Salmon stray. They colonized the Puget Sound basin following the retreat of the glaciers. How many hatchery fish have successfully spawned over the years in their natal river basin or were successful spawners in some other river basin and not necessarily Puget Sound rivers?

Are we being unnecessarily impacted in the NOF process by Stillaguamish and mid-Hood Canal stocks that were at one time classified as not extant or extirpated/extinct.