WAHLE ET AL.: 1960.63 BROOD HATCHERY-REARED SOCKEYE SALMON 



Table 4. — Potential number and weight of hatchery sockeye by brood year and 

 catch year. 



' The average weight of commercially caught sockeye ranged from 1 ,5 to 1 .8 kg dunng the study. 



number of unmarked hatchery fish in the catch: 



potential hatchery (catch) = 



n marks (catch) 



+ unmarked hatchery (catch). 



survival factor 



ECONOMIC EVALUATION 



A primary purpose of this study was to deter- 

 mine the economic feasibility of rearing sockeye 

 salmon at Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. 

 An oft-employed measure of financial worth of a 

 program is the benefit/cost ratio which compares 

 the dollar value (benefit) of the fish returned to the 

 amount spent (cost) in their production. Normally 

 a favorable ratio should exceed 1:1. 



Cost Accounting 



Production costs for each brood of sockeye salm- 

 on in this study were derived in the same manner 

 as in Wahle et al. (1974) and consisted of two 

 categories, amortized construction costs or capital 

 costs and operational costs. 



The "annual imputed capital charge" was com- 

 puted by amortizing the capital expenditures at 

 the hatchery into 30 equal annual payments using 

 an interest rate of S.S'^r . This rate was the average 

 3- to 5-yr government bond mterest rate weighted 

 by the total annual capital outlay at Columbia 

 River Program Development hatcheries from 

 1949 to 1970. As the hatchery reared other species 

 inaddition to the study fish, the capital charge was 

 apportioned by applying a percentage based on the 

 ratio of manpower time charged specifically to 

 sockeye salmon care. 



Operation and maintenance costs were divided 

 into fish food and drugs, and other operational 

 costs. Fish food and treatment costs were appor- 

 tioned according to the pounds of study fish pro- 

 duced as a percentage of the total production. 

 Other operational costs including labor, personal 

 services, travel, equipment, supplies, and ad- 

 ministration were apportioned, as with capital, 

 according to the percentage of time allotted to the 

 care of each brood. 



Benefits 



In other economic studies involving Columbia 

 River salmonids ( Worlund et al. 1969; Wahle et al. 

 1974) benefits included the accrued values from 

 exvessel prices received by commercial fishermen 

 engaged in the variety of catch methods, i.e.. 

 offshore troll, purse seine, gill net, set net, etc. In 

 addition, benefits were calculated for sport-caught 

 fish and for sale of adult carcasses to processors. 

 Our study included only the benefits to commer- 

 cial fishermen on the Columbia River in the gill 

 net (zones 1-5), and tribal dip net (zone 6) fisheries. 

 Sport catch values were not considered as there 

 are virtually no sockeye salmon caught by anglers 

 in the river. 



The simple exvessel price paid to fishermen is a 

 reasonable estimate of benefits as explained by 

 Richards,- although some inadequacies exist in 

 more intensive and complicated fisheries. For the 

 minor fisherv involved in this studv. this method 



^Richards, J. A. 1969. An economic evaluation of Columbia 

 River anadromous fish programs, U.S. Dep. Int.. Fish Wildl, 

 Serv,, Bur, Commer, Fish., Working Pap. 17, 274 p. 



237 



