[1] SCIENCE PANEL RECOMMENDS CUTS IN HATCHERY FUNDING :: A new era of accountability in fish and wildlife funding may be dawning if last week's Portland work session of the power council is any indication of the future. Long-time critics of the program were beginning to feel vindicated, but some long-time beneficiaries said it was "supremely scary."

The council's own panel of scientists played to a packed house on July 15 when they recommended that new artificial propagation programs in FY98 remain unfunded until a basin-wide review of existing hatchery operations is completed. Biologist and Independent Scientific Review Panel member James Lichatowich said this review should have been included in the draft environmental impact statement recently completed by the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority on regional hatchery production. "That burden now shifts to individual hatchery programs," Lichatowich told the council.

Over 90 anadromous fish hatcheries operate within the Columbia Basin, producing over 160 million smolts a year. That's not much in the big picture, where total wild and hatchery production on both sides of the North Pacific produces about five billion smolts a year, but scientists are afraid it may be too much for the Columbia Basin's ecosystem to handle.

The ISRP report said a comprehensive analysis of hatcheries is needed to ensure biodiversity among salmon populations in the region and must look at the hatchery program's impact on the system's carrying capacity, establish baseline population data and life histories of wild populations and examine the cumulative impacts of existing and proposed production projects to develop a policy that protects wild spawning populations.

Lichatowich said the panel recognized that some of the best productive facilities are now partly completed, but that these new programs should only be continued if the ISRP's considerations can be successfully addressed.

The recommendation on hatcheries was part of the ISRP's general review of CBFWA's $127 million funding recommendations for FY98, as mandated by the Gorton amendment to the Northwest Power Act. The amendment called for the scientists to review each project, but the panel said most of the proposals lacked enough information to conduct an adequate peer review. They found more significant problems as well.

Their report states that "there is a noticeable discrepancy between the mix of projects actually funded and the ISRP's interpretation of the intent and priorities in the FWP [Fish and Wildlife Program]," and even more of one if measured against recommendations from the recent scientific reports from the Bevan Team, the National Research Council, the Independent Scientific Group, and the National Fish Hatchery Review Panel.

They pointed out that problems arose because the annual implementation work plan they were asked to review is based on parts of the tribal recovery plan, the NMFS biological opinion, as well as the council's fish and wildlife program, which contain contradictory elements. They called for an integrated framework that creates "a logical sequence of events," such as a comprehensive analysis of hatcheries, before major investments are undertaken.

They recommended a complete management review of the fish and wildlife program, and that the plan "recognize and emphasize sustaining a 'normative ecosystem,' which includes not only anadromous and resident fish, but wildlife such as bald eagles, river otters, seabirds, marine mammals, and bears as well as less conspicuous wildlife, such as songbirds, bats and burrowing rodents."

The scientists called for an annual project review after proposals are initially peer-reviewed, but they said adequate peer review would require more specific information with each proposal that described sampling design, monitoring, and evaluation. They advised building a double track process for competitive and targeted proposals.

The ISRP report said that if tracking and information changes are made and a new funding cycle is announced soon enough, a detailed review of individual projects could be implemented in 1998.

Lichatowich said the panel had "a lot of reasons for optimism" in the future of the fish and wildlife program if the council builds its integrated framework from the different plans. The ISRP is sending its recommendations to CBFWA and their report is out for public comment until Aug. 26. They are also completing a report on habitat, developing "an ecologically-based rationale" for the prioritization of projects. "There aren't any entitlements," said Lichatowich.

Council members heard staffer John Marsh deliver a preliminary report about several artificial propagation projects that seemed to be showing significant cost overruns, but it wasn't clear from CBFWA budget numbers if the increases were from the carryover of unspent funds from the previous year. Marsh also pointed out $3 million in captive rearing projects that may belong in the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan rather than the council's fish and wildlife program. It was pointed out that these projects have already begun, but a feasibility study on the captive broodstock strategy has never been completed. Another $3 million in supplementation proposals was questioned as well, including more than $1 million earmarked for fall chinook acclimation in Hanford K-Basin facilities (cooling ponds) that EPA has banned from use because of toxic waste transportation activities.

Cy Whitman of the Nez Perce tribe told the council that if hatchery strategies are changed, consultation between the tribes and FERC over dam relicensings and fish mitigation will end. "Once you play with production, it goes into the policy arena-- US v. Oregon," said Whitman, referring to the court case that has become the foundation for tribal fishing rights in the Columbia.

"You have to do what you [have to] do," replied council member Ken Casavant, chair of the fish and wildlife committee. -Bill Rudolph

[2] TRIBES VOICE MISGIVINGS OVER PROPOSED SALMON POLICY :: Representatives of many Washington state tribes met with the state's Fish and Wildlife Commission on July 10 to air their gripes over the direction of the state's new wild salmonid policy. A week later, the commission approved the proposal unanimously, because two new members, with ties to agriculture and commercial fishing interests, as well as state tribes, were assured the policy will remain open for changes.

The tribes first complained in March, when the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission said they were not even allowed to provide input into the department's new plan. As co-managers of the resource, they said the new policy must be developed jointly with the tribes. Their latest concerns centered over the possibility of hatchery closures and harvest reductions if the state goes ahead on its present course.

Commission chair Lisa Pelly said they would try to reach closure on eight or nine significant objections to the proposed policy by the tribes, and then wrestle with questions of how to represent differences of opinion in the final document. The commission has scheduled a decision later in the summer to adopt one of five policy alternatives developed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife and modified by public input from meetings across the state. The state Attorney General's office directed the commission to come up with a "preferred alternative." The alternatives run the gamut from little or no harvest of wild fish to harvest scenarios that would probably cause some stocks to go extinct.

Wild juvenile rainbow trout with plenty of room in the Yakima River. --courtesy of WDFW

But Wendell Hannigan of the Yakama tribe said the present schedule might not give the tribes enough time to integrate their concerns effectively.

WDFG director Bern Shanks said he has met with the tribes several times and the new policy "in no way" overrides the Boldt decision or U.S. v. Oregon.

But tribal representatives said the relationship with the state had changed with the passage of Ref. 45 and the creation of the state fish and wildlife commission. Scott Brewer, policy coordinator of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe said, "if we can't get agreement on certain issues, then we won't have a joint policy...we need a healthy fishery--that's the main goal for our wild salmon policy."

The commission assured the tribes that the policy objectives were not merely to avoid ESA listings, but to have healthy fishable populations. They said they were looking at Oregon's new plan to borrow the concept of local watershed councils.

But Brewer said the question boiled done to one thing--flexibility. He pointed to the Quilcene hatchery as an example, where he said any wild fish in the watershed are probably hatchery strays. "Will it be managed for wild or hatchery fish?" asked Brewer. He said the new policy must have flexibility to account for such situations, and that managing for wild fish everywhere is both impractical and foolish.

His remarks were backed up by Yakama tribal biologist Steve Parker, who was afraid that productive programs developed by the tribes would have to be dismantled. "Would state policy require the closing of hatcheries and getting rid of tribal fisheries? How can we support that policy? Until you answer that, you won't get us to support it."

Commission member Jolene Unsoeld said the commission needed the tribes' help because elements of the new policy that deal with improving habitat will be opposed from all across the state. A new salmon policy still would not give the fish and wildlife department legal authority to enforce habitat measures, but other agencies may beef up their rulemaking in the next six months to provide the legal clout.

Crowded conditions after release of hatchery steelhead. Flared fin on wild fish in foreground is a sign of stress. --courtesy of WDFW

The final word was that the tribes were behind the commission on the habitat issues but not those of fisheries management. Though the threat of court action was mentioned, others recognized that the relationship between the state and the tribes should "not be through attorneys."

Jim Anderson, director of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, took issue with Shanks when the WDFW director said "the prior process hasn't worked for salmon." Anderson said the present draft policy "precludes flexibility in watershed planning."

A tribal briefing paper stated that "maintaining the resource and providing harvest are equal and inseparable goals." Other issues were left open, like whether hatchery fish could be used in estimates of counting spawners to meet abundance goals; the tribes said the question is open for further discussion and toward wild spawning abundance goals.

The tribes were in favor of coordination with Gov. Locke's Natural Resource Cabinet at a government-to-government level to deal with habitat issues, while the state preferred planning based at the local watershed level.

The commission plans to have a final proposal ready for public comment by Aug. 15, with a vote planned for Sept. 20. -B.R.

[3] CHINOOK ABUNDANCE UP IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA :: Southeast Alaska trollers had more chinook to catch than last year when their season opened on July 1, but Canadians are still keeping a lid on chinook harvests to protect their own weak stocks. The state of Alaska, with the blessing of the rest of the US section of the signatories to the Pacific Salmon Treaty, the state of Oregon and tribal entities, set a harvest number of 277,000 chinook. They had already caught about 37,000 treaty chinook in their winter and spring fisheries. The National Marine Fisheries Service agreed that Alaska's harvest level is low enough to have an acceptable incidental mortality of listed fall chinook from the Snake River.

When the Canadian troll fishery off Vancouver Island was in full swing just two years ago, coded-wire tag data interpreted by the salmon commission showed that BC fishermen caught around 30 percent of the listed Snake River falls, but there were so few to catch, the population made up only .13 percent of the Vancouver Island fishery. Alaskans catch far less, around 5 percent of the Snake River fall chinook, which makes up a tiny fraction (.02 percent) of their troll fishery.

According to Alaska Fish and Game biologist Dave Gaudet, the 709-boat fleet caught around 120,000 chinook during the seven-day opening. "We made our goal," said Gaudet, who supervised a closely watched monitoring in which where fish and game personnel met boats at the dock to get preliminary results of the fishery. Gaudet said abundance was up just as predicted by the Pacific Salmon Commission's model, which means that Alaska will have another chinook retention period later in the summer that coincides with their coho fishery. Last year, Southeast Alaska fishermen caught about a hundred thousand less chinook than will be allowed this year.

Canadians were still planning on strict chinook conservation measures because of continued worries over their hatchery stocks on Vancouver Island. They called for a total catch of only 85,000 chinook for their North and Central BC coast fisheries. "Some additional fishing opportunities will be available during September when mature WCVI [West Coast Vancouver Island] stocks have left the area," says their plan, which will include time and area closures to protect Vancouver Island chinook stocks. -B.R.

[4] CHANGE IN OCEAN CURRENT MAY SIGNAL SHIFT TO COLDER, WETTER, CLIMATE REGIME :: Three Northwest scientists have just submitted a paper that says a change in ocean currents is a sign that we may be looking at 20 years of colder, wetter weather. NOAA researcher James Ingraham, applied oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, and Richard Hinrichsen of the University of Washington's Columbia Basin Research, have stitched together a tale that begins with a change in the circulation pattern of currents in the Northeastern Pacific that may foretell climate shifts solidly reported in tree ring growth in southeastern Oregon for the past five hundred years.

By getting his computer model of ocean currents to run backwards, Ingraham has traced current trajectories to the turn of the century. By smoothing the data, the researchers saw evidence of four decadal-scale oscillations since 1900, with peaks about 20 years apart, and "nearly in phase" with the growth of Oregon junipers. They say the current has recently turned south, indicating the onset of the next oscillation, which would mean a return to the wetter days of the 1960s.

"Locally," they write, "with costly decisions with regard to altering operations of, or removing Columbia River dams being imminent, we urge decision makers to consider newly acquired information on the potential for a climate shift." They say that the most recent phase, which began in 1977, "appears to be one of the longest in the past five centuries. The switch, if it has not already occurred, is imminent."

In the past, Alaska salmon production has gone down when the West Coast salmon harvests improve with the wetter, colder weather. The oscillation in harvests between the two areas is well documented, as low pressure areas change their position and lose intensity, reducing circulation and upwelling off Alaska, leading to less productive ocean waters. The famed Bristol Bay run seems to be following this pattern. About half the predicted run has appeared this year, with a total catch over about 12 million salmon. This is the first time in the last 19 years that the catch there has fallen below 14 million fish. Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles declared the area an economic disaster, paving the way for state aid because the combination of low prices and poor runs has caused fishermen to lose out on $80 million in expected income. -B.R.

[5] HATCHERY PROGRAM FAILS IN COOS BAY :: An enhancement project in Coos Bay designed to aid sports fishermen has turned out to be a total flop. Only eight jack salmon have returned this year from a release of 150,000 juvenile spring chinook in 1995. Even though the program was designed to enhance sport fishing with spring chinook imported from the Rogue River, no fish were caught by anglers.

According to Paul Reimers, district biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, "the funding did not work out." The cost of this enhancement project is $212,000 annually split between ODFW, the Port of Coos Bay, and a local sport fishing group called the Steelheaders. But the Steelheaders could not raise the $60,000 needed to pay their share over the next four years.

The hatchery salmon enhancement program has been terminated, but there are still on-going costs to recover the few salmon expected to return over the next three years, an activity that's required to keep these non-native hatchery salmon from mixing with wild salmon in Coos Bay spawning streams. Over the next three years, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will spend $54,000 and the Port of Coos Bay will be paying about $60,000 to cover the costs of closing the facility down. If 100 salmon return, which is unlikely, each salmon will have cost over $3,000.

This most recent hatchery failure follows on the heels of another failure to raise salmon in Coos Bay for profit by British Petroleum, a venture that cost millions of dollars. Additional costs were the loss of a wild trout stream in the Klamath Falls area where British Petroleum operated a salmon rearing station on Fort Creek. Salt from their acclimation program contaminated the creek, and a sport fishing lodge owner took the corporation to court for damages to his business.

A similar situation has marked salt water rearing of salmon in Yaquina Bay, where a timber company operated OreAqua Salmon Ranch. The state had to pick up the bill for capturing hatchery salmon returning after that corporate hatchery closed down. A recent attempt by the City of Newport to rear coho salmon at the abandoned OreAqua site has resulted in an investment loss at a cost per adult salmon is $1,400.

The state of Oregon continues to look for opportunities to use hatcheries to enhance fisheries. Past failures, including the high cost per returning salmon and paying for capture of returning fish after facilities close, does not deter the optimism for hatcheries among the public or the state. A recent bumper sticker issued by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reads: "We Hatch Em - You Catch Em." -Bill Bakke

[6] ECONOMISTS REPORT ON PREVIOUS STUDIES OF SALMON COSTS :: Until the region agrees on the fish management techniques that work best, "it will not be possible to develop generally acceptable measures of cost-effectiveness," a group of economists told power council members last week in Portland. This was one of the main conclusions from a review of six studies by the Independent Economic Analysis Board (IEAB), commissioned to help the council wrestle with funding decisions over specific projects and comply with "cost-effective" decisions required by the Gorton Amendment.

IEAB chair Emery Castle told members that "in doing cost-benefit analysis, it's fundamental what your reference point is-what you're trying to maximize."

The board said standardized assumptions could remove much of the variation in the estimated costs of recovery efforts. They found considerable variation in relative cost-effectiveness of different measures in the different studies as well. They cited a study by the Environmental Defense Fund that found flow augmentation up to a million acre-feet from the upper Snake to be more cost-effective than a four-dam natural river drawdown on the Snake, "when the biological objective is reductions in water particle travel time (WPTT)." But they said Harza's study found the opposite to be true when measured as percent gain in salmon survival, which they labelled a "major strength" of the Harza study.

The IAEB's found that these studies showed some changes in river operations were generally less cost-effective than other strategies like barging fish, cutting back on irrigation, or even returning to earlier river operations.

The economists recommended that the council get more reliable measures of achieving biological objectives before informed decisions can be made. "Our present plan is badly outdated," agreed council member Stan Grace.

The IEAB's report admitted that reliable cost-effectiveness analysis is very difficult to do well, and recommended that the council authorize them to establish guidelines to make future studies more comparable.

They spoke of "existence value" as a possible justification for recovering salmon populations, a concept "which refers to the worth to an individual of knowing that the fish (or some other characteristics of the environment) exist, even if the individual does not derive value from commercial harvest or recreational consumption." They admitted estimating such value is "a very difficult enterprise."

The group found that there was significant potential for uncertainty in estimating economic effects, such as future changes in power markets. They pointed out that the market value of greater numbers of fish, considered by itself, could not justify either what the region spends now or what is proposed for recovery actions. They cited the federal agencies' System Operation Review (1995) that found its preferred alternative returned $36 million of commercial and recreational value at a system cost of $147 million.

Other studies reviewed by the economists included the cost analysis of the Bevan Team's Snake River recovery plan, Resources for the Future's 1993 report to BPA, and the 1995 ECONorthwest drawdown study for the Umatilla tribes. -Bill Rudolph

[7] SENATE BILL CALLS FOR DRAWDOWN, HATCHERY STUDIES :: On July 8, money was added to the 1988 energy and water appropriations bill to study the impacts of drawdown at John Day pool, and language was inserted that directs the power council to review the region's federally funded hatchery programs. But the bill has lopped $10 million off the Corps' budget request, which is still $21 million more than this year's appropriation.

The Senate bill makes good on a reprogramming request from the Corps of Engineers to "a study of the biological, social and economic impacts of a drawdown of John Day." The language was added by Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wa., and directs BPA to prepare an analysis of direct and indirect power costs. It says the Corps must provide a scoping document for the appropriations committee within 90 days of the bill's enactment, and if satisfied, the committee will release more funds for continuation of the study. Gorton said the region will be able to make a well-informed decision because all impacts of the proposed drawdown will be studied. The study was approved for $250,000 worth of funding.

Other language in the appropriations bill directs the power council, with the assistance of the Independent Scientific Advisory Board, to review the region's salmon hatchery programs. According to a report that accompanied the bill, the review should include "an assessment of the hatchery operation goals and principles of State, tribal and Federal hatcheries, and produce a formal recommendation for a coordinated policy for the future operation of federally funded hatcheries in the basin and how to obtain such a coordinated policy." The bill directs the National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest states and tribes to provide necessary information for a thorough review. A final report is expected by October, 1998. The bill directs the hatchery study costs to be picked up by BPA. Last week, the independent scientists who have been delegated to review annual funding of the region's fish and wildlife program recommended a hold on new hatchery funding until a comprehensive review of Columbia basin hatcheries is completed, to better assess interactions with wild stocks. -B.R.

[8] NEW LAWSUIT OVER BULL TROUT :: The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan filed documents on July 10 in federal district court in Portland that claims the US Fish and Wildlife Service was "arbitrary and capricious" for not listing three population groups of bull trout under terms of the Endangered Species Act. On June 10, the agency did propose to list Klamath and Columbia basin populations, but said the remainder of the West's bull trout were in better shape.

Alliance director Mike Bader said USFWS engaged in "a shameful effort at creative editing and continual delaying tactics. We are confident the court will see through this transparent attempt to deny legal protection for bull trout throughout their range in the lower 48."

When the federal agency proposed the listing for two populations, it declared bull trout in the Coastal/Puget Sound area of western Washington, the Jarbridge River in northern Nevada, and a tributary to the Saskatchewan River in north-central Montana not warranted for listing. -B.R.

[9] ALASKANS SAY THEY’RE NOT TARGETING CANADIAN SOCKEYE :: Fish managers in Alaska say their fleet is not making a point to catch Canadian sockeye while their boats are fishing for millions of pink salmon that have begun migrating back to Southeast Alaska waters. Angry Canadian fishermen blockaded an Alaska-bound ferry in Prince Rupert for three days to protest the US action. BC Premier Glen Clark accused the US of piracy and other Canadian officials said Alaska has violated the principles of the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

But Alaska is managing its fishery according to pink salmon abundance, said David Benton, Alaska’s commissioner to the Pacific Salmon Treaty, and his state is expecting a return of 35 to 40 million pinks to Southeast streams this year.

"That Alaska should manage its fishery in this manner should come as no surprise to Canadian officials, since abundance-based management is consistent with Treaty principles," said Benton. During its summer fishery, the Alaska fleet catches some Canadian sockeye bound for the Skeena and Nass rivers near Prince Rupert. So far this year, that number is about 400,000 fish. Benton said since escapement goals are being met in the Skeena, "there are no conservation problems."

Canada has had overescapement problems in the Skeena for years because spawning channels were built for sockeye that have created many more returning fish than the river system can handle. When Canadian fish managers keep their fleet in port to allow coho and steelhead populations make proper escapement levels, too many sockeye have entered the river by then. An inriver fishery has been instituted for the past five years to cope with the sockeye problem.

Last year, the sockeye run on the Skeena set an all-time record. Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans reported that 2 million more sockeye showed up than the 3-4 million fish anticipated in the forecast. Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen caught nearly 3 million sockeye last year.

On a historical basis, the SE Alaska catch of the run represents less than 2 percent of the their total salmon harvest. Benton said his state will continue to manage and harvest responsibly in accordance with the treaty and looks forward to the resumption of stakeholder talks next fall.

Meanwhile, Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington joined Alaska senators Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski to announce the introduction of legislation urging Presidential intervention into the salmon dispute. And Canada expects the US to intervene to ensure that its binding treaty obligations are respected, said a spokesman from the Canadian consulate in Seattle.

At the other end of the fish war’s battlefield, the early Fraser run picked up steam and was upgraded to 1.4 million fish, but managers were worried that high flows in the river could cause serious problems for the migrating fish. High river levels had completely covered the fishways at Hell’s Gate in the Fraser Canyon, similar to what happened in 1982 when 90 percent of the early run failed to make it to the spawning grounds.-B.R.

Link/Document Annex
Works Cited

LINKS/DOCUMENTS FROM NW FISHLETTER 039 Below are listed links and documents referred to in the text of NW Fishletter issue 039 .

• ISRP Review of the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program
• 1997 Draft Wild Salmonid Policy, Draft EIS, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, April 1997.
• Press Release, Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, July 19, 1997

THE ARCHIVE Previous NW Fishletter issues and supporting documents.

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