and environmental deterioration has forced, 

 increased reliance on hatchery operations, 

 especially in the past decade. Eighty-one 

 hatcheries are now operated by fishery agencies 

 of Alaska, Canada, California, Oregon, and 

 Washington, and by the Bureau of Sport Fish- 

 eries and Wildlife. Extensive evaluation pro- 

 grams are carried on by the Columbia Fisheries 

 Program Office of the National Marine Fish- 

 eries Service and by some of the other agencies. 

 The evaluative work of the NMFS program 

 has included extensive fin-clipping, sampling 

 for marked salmon, and benefit-cost analyses 

 for brood years by species. 



The current status of these resource augmen- 

 tation programs has recently been summar- 

 ized by Wahle (1970) of the NMFS, and is 

 portrayed in Table 1. Survival rates of 4 to 5% 

 indicate that a multitude of fingerlings must 

 be released in order to affect resource stocks. 

 The cost of production for one fingerling, on 

 the other hand, is relatively low. Our study 

 revealed that the 15 hatcheries of the Oregon 

 Fish Commission produced the equivalent of 

 about 70 million salmon and steelhead finger- 

 lings between October 1, 1968 and April 30, 

 1970, at a cost of slightly over two cents per 

 fingerling.^ Assuming that the survival rates 

 in Table 1 are appropriate, the cost per fish 

 caught at some time in the future rises to about 

 $1.35, disregarding any discounting for time. 



The contributions of hatchery-reared fish to 

 the ocean troll fishery is impressive, ranging 

 from 30 to 80% of total catch in 1968. Wahle 

 points out, however, that the proportion of 

 hatchery fish to wild fish was higher than 

 usual in that year. The true contribution to 

 the sport catch of coho, for example, may be 

 closer to 50% . 



It may be useful to this group to have the 

 hatchery programs put into perspective with 

 the total salmon catch for the West Coast 

 States of Washington, Oregon, and California. 



Table 1. — Survival rates and contributions to ocean 

 troll fisheries of hatchery-reared salmon and steelhead 

 in 1968. 



'Survival rates for coastal streams are shown in parentheses. 

 ^The commercial fishery data for chinook salmon include 

 landings from the west coast of Vancouver Island, in addition 

 to landings in Oregon, Washington, and California. The sport 

 landings include only the latter three States. 

 SOURCE: Wahle, 1970. 



To do SO, we have done some quick (and dirty) 

 calculations for which we assume sole responsi- 

 bility. The total yearly landings of all salmon 

 in this region flucuate widely because of the 

 odd-year cyclical nature of pink salmon, an 

 important species for which hatchery propa- 

 gation work is now in advanced experimental 

 stages (McNeil, 1969). Averaging one recent 

 cycle year for pink salmon (1967) with one 

 non-cycle year (1964), about two-thirds of the 

 total salmon catch is comprised of coho and 

 Chinook (U.S. Department of the Interior, 

 1947-1967). Assuming that Wahle's data from 

 Table 1 are appropriate for coho and chinook, 

 regardless of method of capture'^ (troll, gill net, 

 purse seine), and using a conservative hatchery- 

 contribution share of 30%, it would appear 

 that perhaps 20% of the total West Coast (U.S.) 

 salmon fishery is supported by hatchery pro- 

 grams. This share is increasing over time, 

 and success in rearing pink salmon will pro- 

 vide further augmentation. 



■* This assumes that coho and spring chinook were 

 released at 15 fingerlings per pound of fish, fall chinook 

 at 100 per pound, and steelhead at 10 per pound. Costs 

 include variable operating expenditures plus and im- 

 puted 5'?! charge on the .$7.5 million replacement value 

 of fixed facilities (Mattox. 1970 and Wahle, 1970). The 

 latter sum is no doubt an overestimate of real capital 

 values. 



^ The troll fishery accounted for about GS^c of total 

 coho and chinook capture, averaging 1964 and 1967 

 data. Ocean troll alone would constitute at least 50% 

 of total catch. 



134 



