In calculating endangered fish species, should hatchery populations be counted or just wild fish?

Wild

5 of 6

by judyatlarge

Write now Print Invite a writer™ Add to Favorites RSS Feed Contact this writer

Hatchery salmon (not to be confused with farm salmon, which are a whole different kettle of, well, fish), must not be counted in the census of wild fish because they, unlike true wild salmon, do not in any way replenish the species, though they do put fish into the ocean. Sports fishing is a large and growing industry on Canada's Pacific coast and like most big businesses brings in big bucks. Governments like big bucks. To most governments money is far more important than the sustainability of a species. And this is where the problem lies, not with fish hatcheries per se, but with the use to which they are put. Hatchery fish, those that are released into the wild when very small, grow to adulthood the same as their river-hatched cousins, enduring the same rigors and the suffering same risks as they grow toward maturity. Like river-hatched fish, they provide game for sports fishing, offering employment for some in coastal communities where commercial fisheries once were the norm.

However, personal observation has shown clearly that the salmon from a local hatchery near Sechelt, BC, do return toward their hatchery, which lies on the shores of Porpoise Bay, but is not in a river. These returning salmon are the result of eggs that were obtained from salmon prior to their entering the rivers to spawn. Once artificially inseminated, these eggs are hatched out in tanks onshore. There, the smolt are fed and cared for in large vats and when they have reached a viable size, are released into the ocean. Unfortunately, lacking the instinctive river-sense of fish who actually hatched out in gravel beds in rivers, these fish simply mill around aimlessly, having nowhere to go to spawn. This happens over and over, in hatchery after hatchery all along the coast.

First Nations people are permitted to spear these fish and others can try to catch them with lines and hooks, usually with little success because fish returning from the ocean to spawn are not hungry, not looking for food. Their only instinct is to return to the place from whence they came and complete their age-old cycle. Lacking a river to enter, these hatchery-bred fish, while technically wild, are helpless and confused when they reach the age where their instinct tells them they must spawn. Because they cannot complete that all-important cycle, they won't add to the continuation of the species in any meaningful way, therefore cannot be considered in the census of true wild salmon which are, as most people who have been paying attention, recognized as being extremely endangered.

Learn more about this author, judyatlarge.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.