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Restoration of naturally spawning salmon populations is an ex- 

 tremely important aim and goal for the conservation of the Pacific 

 salmon resource. It not only is our gene bank to maintain genetic 

 and biological diversity and variability, it also is a barometer of the 

 health of the aquatic environment in our part of the country and 

 throughout the country, and pragmatically, which we at times 

 have a tendency to forget, it is the least expensive way to produce 

 Pacific salmon, that relying on the natural environment is much 

 less expensive than providing all our technology to do the same 

 thing. 



Several things need to be done to this in way of preface to my 

 talk about the use of hatcheries. The first thing that we need to do, 

 as has been mentioned very eloquently by the previous panel, is we 

 need to improve damaged habitat and maintain it. Without that, 

 we will not restore naturally spawning populations. 



Secondly, I think we need to initiate a coordinated rational man- 

 agement of harvest of the resources so that we are not constantly 

 throwing natural populations into a tailspin. And, finally, where 

 hatcheries play a role in this, I think we need to restore salmon 

 populations into the usable habitats we have maintained, and this 

 is where the hatcheries can play a major role and, in fact, I think 

 should play a major role. 



In defining the best possible role of hatcheries for restoration of 

 natural salmon populations, I think it is a matter that we need to 

 simply restore the salmon populations rather than finding a best 

 possible role. Best possible roles for hatcheries have historically 

 gotten us into difficulties. The first best possible role to hatcheries, 

 as we started out, was, in fact, to restore natural salmon popula- 

 tions — historically, two major areas which I think need attention. 

 Initially, they were used to spread species across the country with 

 a lack of scientific knowledge to benefit this, and, secondly, they 

 were used as a replacement for naturally spawning stocks which 

 has also gotten us into some difficulties as far as the use of hatch- 

 eries. 



The key word, I think, as far as the use of hatchery facilities in 

 the use of restoring natural populations is versatility. The technol- 

 ogy is there to provide the resources in pretty much any form or 

 any situation we need to, but we need to employ the versatility to 

 address the problem at hand. Now, to address the technology just 

 for a moment, there is a vast array of technology developed for uti- 

 lization of hatcheries for salmon populations. The problems with 

 the technology that have been developed is for the most part they 

 have been aimed at the mass production of salmon. They have been 

 aimed at introducing perhaps genetic and phenotypic uniformity, 

 meeting human efficiency standards, and providing a standardized 

 product out the other end. 



This is not necessarily the commodity that the natural environ- 

 ment needs nor will put up with. Research evidence has shown 

 that we need to vary this approach and that by varying the ap- 

 proach we can successfully change some of these characteristics we 

 have introduced into salmon stocks through hatchery technology. 

 Included in this technological development, there are some impor- 

 tant aspects that we need to pay attention to. We can, in fact, mon- 



