Serially?

This?

Action Alert-Next Step we need your support by no later than March 22nd
A huge thank you!!!!! To all of you for supporting us on the 2.5 year WDFW Commission process on changing the old WDFW Commission Hatchery Policy called Hatchery Reform and removing HSRG language. I am not sure how many of you understand how game changing this is! This is the biggest positive salmon news in decades! WE WON!
We have one more issue that we need your help with one more time to jump this last hurdle in the HSRG process. It is removed, but need to make sure that the SEPA process moves forward allowing the plan to advance to the next step. If you agree you need to respond that you are satisfied that the Determination of Nonsignificance (DNS) is correct for DNS 21-008: ANADROMOUS SALMON AND STEELHEAD HATCHERY POLICY C-3624 which SUPERSEDES POLICY C-3619.
This is critical in order for the WDFW and Northwest Treaty Tribes to start work on the Co-manager Hatchery Policy where each river system will be evaluated to see where hatchery production can be increased. You can take the easy road, read the document we have pre-written for you, and hit the send button, or you can write your own comments and email it to: SEPAdesk2@dfw.wa.gov
WDFW sent out a document called Determination of Nonsignificance DNS 20-045. Please click on the link below and read it. The document also has other ways to contact them to send your letter. We need all the emails and comments we can get, as this is a numbers game. There are going to be other organizations trying to stop this next step from moving forward and sending out their comments against it. Its important that you send this out ASAP!
Click Here to read the document
HSRG was an automatic perpetual funding machine for the salmon recovery “industry” as it provided a constant influx of funding by using the name of salmon recovery. It also provided language to sue to shut down hatchery production from all the while, adding additional cuts to our hatchery production output. Lawsuits take needed money away from our hatcheries when paid out to the ones suing. The problem being is that the many organizations put funding first and fish second. This is used as a crisis management tool. No crisis-no funding. There is no money in recovered fisheries.
Ilwaco’s Butch Smith and I have been working non-stop on removing this for 5-6 years. Many, many sleepless nights to get here. WDFW Commissioner Don McIsaac was the key driver to getting us to this point. He was former Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s Executive Director for 16 years which is the highest fisheries seat in our West Coast. He understands salmon better than just about anyone. He took the job as a WDFW Commissioner to bring back our salmon runs and rebuild our hatcheries and production where it makes sense. Larry Carpenter and the rest of the commissioners deserve our thanks too. We really appreciate what they did. They voted for change, that in the following years will make North of Falcon easier by having more fish to split up. So next time you see them please thank them.
We cannot end this without thanking our tribal brothers and sisters that were key in getting us to this point. I personally want to thank Lorraine Loomis, Justin Parker, Lisa Wilson, GI James, Jason Gobin, Scott Schuyler, Mike Crewson, Tom Chance, Ray Fryberg, Randy Kindley, and many other tribal members, for reaching across the line to build a coalition with PSA and Coastal fishers that led us to this huge victory! Without getting this done we would have continued down the same death spiral of massively decreased hatchery production. We agree that increased hatchery production is needed to get us all back fishing. Please respond today and forward this to your family members and friends. We need massive responses to get to the next level so that the anti-hatchery groups do not kill this as they are working against us. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Ron Garner
President
Puget Sound Anglers State Board


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Can somebody frame this one for me? Trying to understand the significance of this,

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I believe that the somewhat simple answer is that it will allow significant increases in artificial production. As an example, the lower Columbia Chinook are/were in such bad shape that hatchery releases had to be almost eliminated to allow for "recovery" of naturally spawning fish. As has been noted in PS, the decades since listing have not resulted in improvements in the wild fish. The argument can thus be made that actual recovery is , in many cases, impossible to achieve. We can debate the reasons (habitat, climate change, overfishing, your choice) but the rusult is that we, as a society, don't want to accept the cost of meaningful wild recovery and the constraints on development that leads to. So, if we are going to have fisheries where we kill fish, then we gotta grow them in hatcheries.

You forgot to thank the starving PS Killer Whales.

The general public cares for Willy.

Not so much for fish or salmon in general.

03/17/2021

Is this a salmon issue or will/does this also affect Wild/nature steelhead????

I still have not seen a "real plan" placed by WDFW, after the 12/14/2020 change on "no fishing from boats", is there a plan?????? Someone in WDFW Fish management needs to put a management plan in writing and make the general public aware, probably before 2021/22 license sales start, could affect how people spent their "fishing bucks"

Just saying............

Plan? We don't need no stinkin' Plan. As long as we stay out of court, all's fine.

Have to agree, Doc. General public likely wants lots of fish out there to feed Willy, the seals, and all the birds.

Hatchery Science Review Group (HSRG) ? I'm not a biologist so I don't understand the language and had to Google it.

I'm curious how groups like WSC, etc. will react? More lawsuits slowing or stopping any increase in hatchery production?

How do you quite the federal government?
HSRG was put into effect by the US Congress in 2000.

Got the email about this yesterday.

Looks as though they've decided having more fish for markets is more important than having wild fish. I'm frankly surprised it took so long.

I'm frankly surprised you make this an either/or situation and attribute the motivation as commercial.

Because it is. You can't restore the Columbia above Bonneville until the dams are gone. Same with watersheds like the Sacramento and San Joaquin. There are many others. Further, we have demonstrated that the wild stocks can't support the harvest we (rec/commercial) want to direct at them. We do't want to leave water in rivers, let rivers have floodplains, leave trees on hillsides. WA, NOAA, and the Co-Managers have had since the 90s to begin the actual recovery process for Chinook and steelhead. That success should be enough to convince folks how important the actual recover and restoration of these fish is.

For the "Make Hatchery Fish Great Again" folks, you might want look at the facts.
No wild fish means no hatchery fish.
They are forever connected, break that connection and poof, it all disappears.

Could this potentially be something that gets hatchery steelhead back into Puget Sound rivers again?

This may not have as much of an effect on things as the proponents may like...because hatchery programs and fisheries still have to comply with the ESA. The HSRG did comply with the ESA, and getting rid of it doesn't get rid of the ESA, it just gets rid of an ESA-compliant tool.

Ignoring the ESA will just result in very easy low-hanging-fruit lawsuits from the NGOs.

Fish on...

Todd

Again how do you quite the federal government?
HSRG came from Congress and now Washington is telling the feds to stick it?
I agree this kind of stupid needs to be made to pay.

The old saying was you need a healthy wild stock to have a healthy hatchery stock ( same river ) and always manage for the wild stock or two non integrated stocks. The problem here is in down years for wild you will have users, commercials and rec, screaming they should be harvesting those " surplus " fish. You will have better luck dealing with a rabid dog than a harvester in full kill mode screeching all hatchery fish must die. The simplest answer is the hatchery fish in these years are the inriver rec fishers best years as the commercial side is restrained.

I participated in HSRG and was once told my team's methodology was HSRG before there was an HSRG. The thing is HSRG came at things from a science point of view that was rather idealistic and simply failed to factor in the human side of things with the lofty goals it contained. It did not factor in the demands that mixed stock fisheries, marine and fresh water, place on the creature. Ended up propelling the development of the " habitat restoration industry " rather than drive the needed habitat preservation.

So simple fact is streams the have healthy wild runs need strong protection not just fresh water but most importantly in the marine environment. Streams that are toast just accept it and max out hatchery production. Streams that have some resemblance of the natural order work to stabilize the habitat and the fish. If human intervention is needed to do this be habitat restoration or hatchery supplementation then do that to restore and maintain the run.

So for myself after 40 years working with fish this simple fact. You cannot save every stream or every stock of fish. As a friend once said your 200 years and 4 million people late.

One needs to remember that a hatchery needs higher quality water than the wild fish in the river. Rearing fish in close quarters raises the risk of disease. Water quality and quantity are paramount.

We should admit that since the first listing we have generally done a poor job. As Rivrguy noted, we keep adding people and that subtracts salmon.

I can see, and there are examples of, successful hatchery operations and successful wild runs. They just ain't in the same place. And, so long as we worship marine mixed stock fisheries, ignore the salmonid food needs in the ocean, starve the streams for nutrients, and maximize predator numbers, be it people, seals, or birds, wild fish are but a hazy memory. And if we don't deal with marine water productivity, so are the hatchery fish.

I think this is where the blinders need to come off the contingent that sees hatcheries as the panacea. Bottom line, if we ain't got the conditions to produce wild fish in robust numbers, the hatchery clones ain't far behind.

Wait... we'll just make a genetically superior hatchery fish by infusing with wild broodstock. And we'll make hatcheries better by making hatchery conditions more like the wild.

J F C.... someday everybody's gonna realize the best "hatchery" ever created was a healthy wild river.