PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON TROUT

PO Box 402 Duvall, WA 98019 · Tel 425/788-1167 · Fax 425/788-9634 · wildfish@washingtontrout.org

Contact: Kurt Beardslee, Washington Trout, 425/788-1167; kurt@washingtontrout.org

For Immediate Release: June 27, 2002

 

Washington Trout Will Sue State Hatchery Program for Breaking Environmental Law

Two regional salmon-conservation group say that Washington state’s 18 chinook hatcheries throughout Puget Sound are violating the Endangered Species Act by harming and killing federally protected wild chinook salmon. Washington Trout and the Native Fish society have notified the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife that they intend to sue the state agency to shut down all state-run chinook salmon hatcheries in Puget Sound if the problems are not fixed.

Puget Sound chinook were listed as Threatened under the ESA in 1999. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforces the ESA, has acknowledged that hatcheries have been a factor in wild-salmon declines, and that hatchery operations and facilities can harm and even kill listed salmon. Under the ESA it is illegal to harm, harass, kill, or otherwise “take” a listed species.

Washington Trout and the Native Fish Society say that WDFW’s chinook hatcheries are harming listed wild chinook in a number of ways:

• Many wild chinook are captured and killed to use their eggs and sperm for hatchery production. Some wild fish are killed intentionally; others are killed unintentionally because the department’s field staff has no reliable way to tell the difference between wild and hatchery fish.
• When wild chinook are identified by hatchery staff and released, many subsequently die from stress or injury received during handling.
• Hatchery chinook released into the wild compete with wild chinook for food and habitat, and in some cases actually prey on wild juveniles.
• Stray hatchery chinook often breed with wild chinook. The hatchery salmon are genetically inferior, and pass on their faulty genes, harming the wild population as a whole.
• At least ten of WDFW’s Puget Sound chinook hatcheries have artificial barriers at the facilities that block wild chinook from reaching important spawning and rearing habitats.

There are approximately 55 state, federal, tribal, and private hatcheries operating in the Puget Sound basin. WDFW operates 18 hatcheries in Puget Sound that produce chinook salmon for harvest by recreational, commercial, and tribal fishers. While the hatchery chinook look like and in some ways behave like their wild counterparts, there are many differences between the two fish, and nearly all scientists concede that the hatchery fish are inferior, that they survive at lower rates, and that they do not reproduce as well as wild salmon. Hatchery chinook outnumber wild chinook because they are artificially produced in very large numbers. With a few exceptions, the hatchery chinook in Puget Sound do not receive protected status.

“The scientific literature clearly shows that supplementing wild salmon with hatchery fish weakens wild stocks,” said Bill Bakke, Native Fish Society Executive Director. “And in the process, WDFW’s hatchery program is killing listed chinook and degrading their habitat. It doesn’t make any sense.”

The two groups sent WDFW a “60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue,” a step private entities must take before they can file suit under the ESA. If WDFW does not remedy the allegations within the 60 days, the conservation groups will be free to file a lawsuit in federal court to force the changes or close the hatcheries.

“WDFW is currently breaking the law,” said Kurt Beardslee, Washington Trout’s Executive Director. “If they can’t figure out a way to operate the hatcheries without violating the ESA, they should shut the facilities down.”

WDFW could apply to the National Marine Fisheries Service for an ESA exemption for the hatcheries. In June 2000, NMFS adopted a so-called “4d Rule,” outlining ESA regulations for Puget Sound. The 4d Rule included criteria for hatchery programs to qualify for exemption from ESA enforcement.  So far, WDFW has not submitted any final applications to NMFS for any of its Puget Sound chinook hatcheries. If WDFW submits the applications, they will then be subject to lengthy agency and public-review processes.

Seattle attorney Richard Smith, of Smith & Lowney PLLC, is representing the two organizations. “WDFW is behaving like the old Soviet bureaucracy,” said Smith. “While it claims to be protecting threatened chinook, its hatchery machine continues grinding away to the detriment of these fish, with no accountability.  The agency has had more than two years to fix these problems. Now it has another sixty days to get things straight with NMFS.”  

Washington Trout is a non-profit salmon-conservation and advocacy organization, located in Duvall, Washington, dedicated to the protection and recovery of Washington’s wild fish and their habitats. The Native Fish Society, based in Portland, Oregon, works to preserve and restore native fish species throughout the Northwest.

 

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For copies of Washington Trout’s 60-Day Notice and other background materials,

contact Washington Trout: Ramon@washingtontrout.org

 

see also Seattle P-I