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The Honorable Geny Studds 

 March 5, 1993 

 Page 4 



selection in any population of animal weakens that population's adaptation to its 

 environment. Year after year of hatchery output eventually weakens stocks subject to 

 "enhancement" or "supplemcnUtion". In time those stocks cannot withstand 

 environmental stress and change. Eventually they fail and the stock collapses leaving 

 few alternatives other than importation and permanent artificial pro<luction of a new 

 strain. 



5. Hatcheries add risk to the vtablUtv of naturally si)awnln£ nopulatlong. 



Hatchery fish cause considerable risk to natural populations through genetic 

 Interaction. A sixteen year evaluation of hatchery and wild steelhead interactions by 

 the Washington Department of Wildlife shows that hatchery fish survival is ten times 

 lower than wild fish in the natural stream environment. Also, when hatchery and wild 

 sahnon interbreed the resulting generation is less fit and survives at a lower rate thn 

 the wild fish. 



Dr. Gary Meffe, University of Georgia, called salmon hatcheries on the Pacific 

 coast "techno-arrogance" and summed up me problems in a recent sirticle in 

 Conservation Biology. He says, 



There are at least sk reasons why the hatchery approach will ultimately 

 fail: (1) data demonstrat that hatcheries are not solving the problem-- 

 sabnon continue to decline despite decades of hatchery production; (2) 

 hatcheries are costly to run, and divert resources from other efforts, sucha 

 as habitat restoration; (3) hatcheries are not sustainable in the long term, 

 requiring continual input of money and energy; (4) hatcheries are a 

 genetically unsound approach to management that can adversely affect 

 wild populations; (5) hatchery production lead to increased harvest of 

 decUnine wild populations of sahnon; and (6) hatcheries conceal from Ae 

 public the truth of reaJ sahnon decline. I recommend that sabnonid 

 management turn from the symptoms to the causes of decline. 



It is also well known that disease outbreaks are common in hatcheries. No 

 amount of caution and good intention eUminates that risk. Diseased fish sicken others 

 in the ecosystem causing massive losses. Moreover, loss of entire generations of 

 hatchery stock is not unknown from other causes such as pump faflure, water poUutioii, 

 feed contamination, and vandalism. If the brood stock was taken fi^om naturally 

 spawning populations the progeny of the broodstock is lost forever and the effective 

 population size of the natural stock is permanently lowered. Loss of effective 

 population size narrows genetic variability and vigor. 



Conclusion 



Inquiry into restoration of Pacific safanonid abundance should not be limited to 

 artificial production. As explained above and in the literature cited below such 



