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Operations Team) to develop basinwide practices that should help improve 

 hatchery operations and policies. Significant research efforts also are underway 

 in the areas of fish disease, hatchery effectiveness and hatchery impacts on 

 naturally spawning stocks. One of the two production subcommittees of the 

 Salmon Oversight Committee proposed by the Recovery Team appears to duplicate 

 efforts of the Integrated Hatchery Operations Team. In our comments to the 

 Recovery Team on its draft recommendations, we suggested it would be helpful if 

 their proposals were recast to fit with these ongoing efforts, rather than create an 

 additional committee. 



The Council sought to Initiate a number of careful supplementation 

 experiments, but the role of supplementation in rehabilitating naturally spawning 

 populations is much debated. In the past, we have sought clarity fi-om the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service on the point at which supplementation or 

 captive broodstock programs should be implemented in order to conserve 

 naturally spawning populations. As yet, the region has achieved no clesir answer 

 on this issue. 



Lacking clear direction from the Fisheries Service, the Council has assumed 

 that supplementation will be needed to rebuild Snake River fall chinook 

 populations. We have called for expenditure of funds to determine habitat 

 requirements, and a considerable amount of plemning has been undertaken for a 

 supplementation project sponsored by the Nez Perce Tribe. To date, however, we 

 have received no assurances that these activities can proceed. While we have seen 

 some promising increases in the number of fall chinook passing over Lower 

 Granite Dam in the past three years, rebuilding is not assured. Runs this year 

 are expected to be very low. In short, the region needs immediate guidance on the 

 role of supplementation and captive breeding programs. Past experience indicates 

 that Implementation of these activities takes a considerable amount of time, 

 particularly in the current climate of uncertainty. 



Downstream Survival 



Improving downstream survival has proved to be the most controversial and 

 most expensive area of our Strategy. Like the Team, we struggled with substantial 

 biological uncertainty, generally weak data and diametrically opposed judgments 



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