Comparisons of Over 60 Years of Winter Steelhead Trends at Two NW Rivers

Skagit River steelhead harvests in 1951-60 averaged 15,000, nearly all wild. The 2001-10 combined harvests of wild and hatchery steelhead averaged 1,500. This loss coincides with a 1994-2007 average of 450,000 hatchery steelhead smolts planted annually in the Skagit - 6,235,000 total. At $1 per hatchery smolt, $6.23 million was spent in 14 years with resulting 90 percent loss of harvest once provided by wild steelhead 50 years ago.

NF Umpqua River wild winter runs of steelhead without hatchery winter steelhead plants have remained stable for 64 years with a return average of 7,150 wild steelhead per year.  Steelhead harvest has been similarly stable at 1,200 steelhead per year for 40 years.  This record of sustainability has come at no public cost.

Rebuilding wild steelhead populations means more fishing opportunity.

Study: Hatcheries can disrupt steelhead navigation

Yet further proof hatchery fish are inferior to the wild variety.

A new study suggests steelhead trout can have trouble using the Earth's magnetic field to navigate if they were raised in a hatchery, where the field may be distorted by iron pipes.

LINK (via: Idaho Business Review)

OSU: Wild salmon smarter than hatchery fish

Police seek steelhead bandits

Vandalism or activism? Seriously?

Washington state’s five steelhead hatcheries are on high alert after someone broke into a facility overnight and released approximately 25,000 juvenile fish into the Snoqualmie River.

State Fish and Wildlife Hatchery managers are concerned it was an act of defiance against a new agreement that sharply curtails the state’s steelhead hatchery program.

LINK (via: KING 5)

Historic Agreement Reforms Trinity River Fish Hatchery

Another victory for wild fish.

A federal court has approved the settlement agreement in a lawsuit challenging operations at the Trinity River Fish Hatchery. The agreement between EPIC, state agencies and Tribes allows the hatchery to continue to operate, but with needed reforms to restore imperiled wild coho salmon.

LINK

Wild Fish In Gene Banks, Hatchery Fish In Elwha — Why The Two-Headed Strategy?

Washington state has banned hatchery-raised steelhead from three tributaries of the Upper Columbia River basin. The aim of these so-called "gene banks" is to maintain strongholds for wild fish, and the state plans to designate additional gene banks in the future.

Here's the $64,000 $16,000,000 question.

So why were the state and federal governments back in court this week, defending the decision to place a new hatchery on the Elwha River as part of the dam removal process?

LINK (via: KPLU)