With only an estimated one in five west coast salmon now spawned in the wild, this threatened to end to federal protections for wild salmon-as well as safeguards for critical inland habitat from logging, mining, development and agriculture. Early reports suggested that 15 salmon stocks would lose federal protection. [1]

The administration claimed the revision was inevitable, thanks to a 2001 federal court ruling that the government had erred in listing coastal coho salmon as endangered based solely on the number of wild fish, without counting hatchery fish. This ruling contradicted 15 years of Pacific Northwest salmon recovery efforts. It was not appealed by the administration. The final policy is expected early next month, when it will be published in the Federal Register and opened for public comment. [2]

Public and scientific outcry greeted the new policy. "Hatchery fish and wild fish are very different in behavior and genetic variability," says Jeff Miller, Bay Area Wildlands Coordinator of the Center for Biological Diversity. "No credible scientist would support the idea of counting large numbers of hatchery fish -- which are produced artificially in concrete rearing tanks, and then dumped in the estuaries, bays and lower rivers -- when assessing the status of wild fish stocks."

"In crowded hatchery conditions hatchery fish spread diseases to wild fish, and also compete with wild fish for scarce resources and spawning habitat," Miller told BushGreenwatch. "Hatchery fish, which are mass-produced and have low genetic variability, lower the ability of wild fish runs to adapt to environmental change."

The administration backpedaled in mid-May, declaring strong support for preserving wild salmon stocks. "After re-evaluating the listing of 26 species of salmon and steelhead, and considering the science on hatcheries, we have preliminarily determined to propose relisting at least 25 of the 26 species, with evaluation of the remaining species still underway," a NOAA administrator wrote to Northwest representatives and senators on May 14. [3]

Relieved but wary, conservationists, foresee continued struggle. "The general trend of the Bush Administration--inviting challenges to endangered species listings, and then putting up no defense, or not vigorously defending them so that they're struck down--is ongoing," said Miller, noting that conservationists are having to go to court instead of working on restoration. "We're fighting to keep species listed that desperately need these protections. And there's a huge backlog of other species that need to get on the list."

Brian Barr, Wildlands Restoration Program Officer for the World Wildlife Fund's Klamath-Siskiyou Program, says the proposed policy could undercut critical habitat protections. "Hatcheries are operated as domestication processes. We could have captive breeding programs relied on very heavily to improve our odds of 'recovering' a vast array of other species that are currently listed under the Endangered Species Act," says Barr.

The Bush Administration ignored its own panel of outside experts when it crafted the new hatcheries policy. "Six of the world's leading experts on salmon ecology complained [in March] in the journal Science that fish produced in hatcheries cannot be counted on to save wild salmon," reported the Washington Post. "The scientists had been asked by the federal government to comment on its salmon-recovery program, but said they were later told that some of their conclusions about hatchery fish were inappropriate for official government reports." [4]

Bush appointee Mark C. Rutzick, a former timber industry lawyer, is considered a primary architect of the policy. [5]

"We're fighting a rear-guard action to keep [endangered species] from being taken off the list," says Jeff Miller. "It's like the Bush Administration is running through a hospital's critical trauma unit, pulling everyone's I.V. drips. These species are really in the emergency unit, and they're trying to pull them off life support."

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SOURCES:
[1] "Hatchery Salmon Bombshell," Tidepool, Apr. 30, 2004.
[2] "Hatchery Salmon to Count As Wildlife," The Washington Post, Apr. 29, 2004.
[3] "Letter from NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher Concerning Proposals to Renew Listings of Northwest Salmon and Proposed Hatchery Policy," May 13, 2004.
[4] The Washington Post, op. cit.
[5] "Shift on Salmon Reignites Fight on Species Law," The New York Times, May 9, 2004.