Rob Jones, NOAA Marine Fisheries Service chief of hatcheries and fisheries for the West Coast region, said the environmental study looks at the benefits and risks of 133 hatchery programs in Puget Sound, including the Skagit River steelhead program a lawsuit halted earlier this year.


Following the lawsuit, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife retracted the plan for Skagit River winter steelhead from review under the Endangered Species Act, which was used as the basis of the legal argument. The National Environmental Policy Act review is broader in scope and was already underway when the state agency and organization that filed suit reached a settlement regarding endangered species, Jones said.


Four hatcheries operate in the Skagit River system — the Marblemount, Upper Skagit, Baker Lake and Barnaby Slough Hatchery. Those operations contribute to Chinook, coho, chum, sockeye and steelhead runs.


Healthy fisheries are important to both area tribal cultures and the local economy.


Tribal and nontribal fishers harvest an average of 1.7 million hatchery fish annually in the north Puget Sound subregion, which includes Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and San Juan counties, according to NOAA’s report. The harvest brings in more than $8.5 million in gross economic value each year, which is 55 percent of the total value harvested in Puget Sound.


Fish caught from the Skagit River accounted for 19 percent of the commercial harvest of salmon and steelhead in major rivers between 1997 and 2006, according to the report.


In north Puget Sound, hatchery operations and fishing activities generated an average of $41.7 million in personal income and supported 975 jobs between 2002 to 2006. During that time, hatchery operations supported 187 jobs in Skagit County, the Port of Skagit brought in an average of $1 million in harvest value, and the La Conner port brought in $967,000.


NOAA’s environmental study includes four alternatives for area hatcheries. The alternatives are to take no action, accept the hatchery plans as submitted, reduce hatchery production or increase it, said Steve Leider, NOAA’s EIS project manager for the West Coast region.


The reduced production alternative would cut Chinook, coho and steelhead operations in half in places where indigenous Chinook populations still exist, providing greater conservation benefits for the wild .... http://www.goskagit.com/all_access/regio...2375ec8e79.html
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