USFWS Pacific Region National Fish Hatchery System Review

Fisheries management

Fisheries Technician taking scale samples from adult salmon at Makah National Fish Hatchery

Overview: In the past 160 years, habitat alterations, hydroelectric development and consumptive fisheries have impacted most of the salmon and steelhead trout populations in the Pacific Northwest. To mitigate for those impacts, hatcheries have been used to increase the number of fish available for harvest. However, long-term conservation needs of natural salmonid populations and their inherent genetic resources require a re-examination of the role of hatcheries in basin-wide management and conservation strategies.

Background: In May 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) initiated a series of hatchery reviews to assure that its Pacific Northwest hatchery programs are part of a scientifically-sound and integrated strategy — consistent with Tribal, State nd other Federal strategies — for conserving wild stocks and managing fisheries in watersheds within the Region. The reviews, tailored after a successful process implemented in Puget Sound and Coastal Washington watersheds, examined 53 hatchery programs at 24 federally-owned hatcheries in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. They were completed in January 2011. The first of these reviews was a pilot in May 2006, of the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery; a spring Chinook hatchery located in the Deschutes River Basin of central Oregon. The report series ended with (USFWS) regionwide issues, guidelines, and recommendations for the region's hatcheries within the National Fish Hatchery System.

A woman wearing a USFWS uniform and hat with a ponytail stands on a walkway holding a clipboard while looking down into water.

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Our Method: We believe the hatchery review process developed in western Washington provided both a solid template and operational tools (e.g., software spreadsheets, population dynamic models) for reviewing Service hatcheries in the Columbia River Basin and on the Olympic Peninsula. We also have found that much of the background information necessary for reviewing Service hatcheries in the Pacific Region had already been compiled in Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans, Comprehensive Hatchery Management Plans and the Artificial Propagation Review and Evaluation (APRE) database developed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NWPCC).

The Team: The Hatchery Review Team, comprised of Service and other federal scientists (from NOAA-Fisheries and the U.S. Geological Survey) conducted field tours with hatchery managers and their staffs, reviewed hatchery operations, and met with the comanaging agencies and tribes to gain a clear understanding of the goals for and status of each wild and hatchery population and associated habitat and management strategies. The Review Team applied the Puget Sound and Coastal Washington Hatchery Scientific Review Group's scientific framework and hatchery review tools to develop reform recommendations for each hatchery program.