Recent Study Confirms Lower Reproductive Success For Hatchery Fish

Surprise, surprise.

Studies of six supplementation programs show reduced reproductive successes for hatchery-bred fish compared to wild fish, but the reasons for the lower reproductive success varies among programs and streams.

LINK (via: CBB)

Trout Gone Wild

In 1974, Montana did something that stunned anglers across the state and the nation: It stopped stocking trout in streams and rivers that supported wild trout populations.

The move initially outraged many anglers, fishing businesses, and even some Montana Fish and Game Department staff. For decades, hatcheries had been credited with producing more and better fishing. Without stocking, many Montanans asked, what would happen to the state’s famous trout waters and the businesses that relied on legions of anglers arriving from across the country each summer?

The answer, now well known, is that trout fishing improved dramatically. Once stocking was discontinued, wild trout numbers doubled, tripled, and more on many rivers.

LINK (via: Montana Outdoors)

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

Naturally produced steelhead are potentially surviving at a higher rate than hatchery fish

Go figure.

Juvenile wild steelhead are smaller than hatchery fish when they reach the ocean, but have a higher feeding success, are in better condition and grow faster than hatchery fish once they arrive in the marine environment, according to a recent study.

LINK (via:CBB)

WDFW will not release 'early winter' hatchery steelhead!

Thanks to the Wild Fish Conservancy another blow has been struck against the hatchery welfare state.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will not release early winter hatchery steelhead into rivers around Puget Sound as planned this spring unless it can resolve issues raised in January by the Wild Fish Conservancy and restated in a lawsuit the group filed this week.

Phil Anderson said WDFW leaders made the “very difficult” decision last week under the threat of litigation by the Conservancy, a non-profit group based in Duvall, Wash. In late January, the group filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the department over its management of early winter (Chambers Creek) steelhead hatchery programs.

On Monday, March 31, as the 60-day period ended, the group filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Seattle against the department and the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, alleging WDFW has violated the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). The group contends WDFW’s planting of Chambers Creek steelhead undermines the recovery of wild Puget Sound steelhead, salmon and bull trout, which are listed as “threatened” under the ESA.

Anderson said WDFW is vulnerable to lawsuits over its hatchery steelhead operations because they were not approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) following the ESA listing of Puget Sound steelhead in 2007.

LINK (via: WDFW)