Genetic management plans important
for hatchery operations in ESA era
by Jeffrey Koenings, Ph.D., WDFW Director
The Trout and Salmon Leader, Director's Column
Spring 2001

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) this spring reached an important milestone in its efforts to ensure its hatchery operations are compatible with wild salmon recovery initiatives.

In late March, WDFW biologists completed first drafts of the agency's Hatchery Genetic Management Plans (HGMP) and delivered them to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). More than two dozen draft plans focusing on Puget Sound chinook hatchery programs, and a dozen dealing with Lower Columbia chinook and steelhead, were sent to NMFS.

The draft HGMPs, which provide concise overviews of hatchery operations, represent the first of many the Department will complete. Biologists have started work on others, but the Department will need additional funds to finish all of them and then review them annually.

NMFS scientists are looking over the plans already submitted, and are seeking public comment. The plans, drafted under the supervision of WDFW biologist Mark Kimbel, can be viewed on that agency's web site (www.nwr.noaa.gov). Approval of the HGMPs by NMFS will be necesssary for continued hatchery and fish enhancement operations.

Hatchery operations, of course, are vitally important to Washington state because they produce most of the salmon, steelhead and trout caught by the public. Nearly 85% of the catch originates from Washington hatcheries and has replaced natural production lost by land use decisions that destroyed spawning and rearing areas for wild fish.

It is my view that these decisions represent a long term contract by the state to maintain commercial and recreational fisheries using hatcheries. This commitment should be reinforced in the months ahead as we move to reform our hatcheries so they meet ESA criteria, aid in wild salmon recovery and provide sustainable fisheries.

Once the HGMPs are completed and approved by NMFS, they will provide operational and scientific blueprints for WDFW's hatcheries as wild salmon recovery efforts proceed. In the weeks ahead, federal fisheries officials will rely heavily on information contained in the plans to evaluate the impacts of artificial propagation activities on the recovery efforts now underway for listed anadromous salmon and steelhead .

Of major interest to fishers is the fact that HGMPs will also be used to determine whether take permits for listed species should be issued for fisheries in certain waters.

Besides allowing the Department to meet ESA mandates and move ahead with our co-managers in crafting scientifically-sound fishing seasons, the HGMPs are important for two other reasons.

First, the documents will prove invaluable as the agency seeks to comply with recently-passed state legislation that requires the WDFW to determine criteria to allow appropriate fish produced in hatchery environments to spawn naturally in the state's watersheds.

To ensure that these criteria are based on the best science available, and do not conflict with the ESA and wild salmon recovery efforts, the information contained in the HGMPs will be used for guidance in drafting the rules. In fact, any criteria for placing more hatchery spawners in watersheds must be consistent with the HGMPs, and the risk-benefit analysis contained therein..

Secondly, the plans are an important contribution to the larger hatchery reform effort now underway by state and federal officials, the tribes and stakeholders. HGMPs are proving to be an invaluable tool for the independent science panel charged with developing broad operational and scientific guidelines for all Puget Sound and coastal hatcheries operated by the state, tribes and federal government.

Already, information gleaned during the preparation of the HGMPs and the risk-benefit analysis have been put to use by the Department, helping the agency improve hatchery operations and lessen their impacts on wild stocks.

For example, during the preparation of HGMPs, fisheries managers detected the potential for high wild fish mortality rates at several facilities due to inadequate screens at hatchery inflow pipes, and measures were taken to correct the problems.

The HGMPs already completed also prompted the Department to reduce production of yearling chinook after it was determined fisheries scientists do not yet have enough information on how the yearlings might stray or predate on wild juvenile chinook.

Even though the HGMPs have already proven valuable, and will allow us to meet our obligations under the ESA, they also point out just how much work remains to bring our valuable hatcheries into the new century and make them compatible with their dual goal of wild stock conservation and sustainable fisheries.

For more than a century, hatcheries have produced fish for harvest in Washington state. In 1999, WDFW's 96 hatchery facilities produced more than 200 million juvenile fish. Adults from that production represent a majority of the fish caught in Washington sports and commercial fisheries.

But despite their economic and cultural importance to our state, we have fallen woefully behind in making the necessary scientific and other investments to our hatchery infrastructure. The Department is dedicated to reversing this trend and embracing the hatchery reform initiative now underway.

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