[env-trinity] Sacto Bee - Fishery Rules Change

[Byron]

FISHERIES PRESERVATION

New rules shift salmon policy

Critics say scientists were ignored; species protection uncertain.

Sacramento Bee - 5/2/04 

By Les Blumenthal, staff writer

WASHINGTON - In tentatively concluding there is little difference between
wild and hatchery salmon, the Bush administration rejected the findings of
independent scientists and, instead, opted for a fundamental shift in
long-established policy that could affect federal protections for up to 25
West Coast runs.

The administration's move, outlined in a one-page confidential memo reviewed
by the White House Council on Environmental Policy, represents a major
victory for agricultural interests and developers who had fought the
listings of salmon and steelhead runs under the Endangered Species Act. It
was a major setback for environmentalists, who charge the White House
manipulated an earlier court decision for political purposes.

The proposed policy, still in draft form, comes at a time of record or
near-record runs on rivers and streams. Most returning fish, in some cases
90 percent or more, are hatchery-raised and not wild. Despite more than $700
million spent annually on the most extensive effort ever to recover an
endangered species, improved ocean conditions rather than man-made fixes are
generally credited for the healthy runs.

Hatcheries have played a key role in supplementing wild runs since the
1930s, when the federal government embarked on an ambitious program to build
massive hydroelectric dams. The dams flooded spawning habitat and interfered
with migrating fish.

Until now, only wild salmon and steelhead have been considered when deciding
on federal protection.

"Ultimately, this is an attempt to bypass the Endangered Species Act and
delist as many stocks as they can," said biologist Ransom Myers of Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Myers was one of six scientists appointed to an independent advisory panel
by federal officials to look at whether wild and hatchery-bred salmon are
genetically similar. Myers and other members of the panel said officials of
the National Marine Fisheries Service were not pleased when the panel
concluded there were significant differences.

"Any science that contradicted them was not welcome," Myers said in a
telephone interview. The scientists, he said, basically found that "you
can't replace wild salmon with hatchery salmon. It's like saying Chihuahuas
and wolves are the same."

Other members of the scientific panel were also critical of the
administration.

"The current political and legal wrangling is a sideshow to the real
issues," Robert Paine, a biologist at the University of Washington, said in
an earlier statement. "The science is clear and unambiguous - as they are
currently operated, hatcheries and hatchery fish cannot protect wild
stocks."

The advisory panel said the tens of millions of hatchery fish released into
Western rivers each year are well-fed and larger than wild ones. But Myers
said the hatchery fish are also genetically inferior, and staking the
survival of all salmon on those bred in captivity would be a mistake.

Administration officials sought to downplay the impact of the new policy.

"People are jumping to conclusions about what this says," said Jim Lecky,
intergovernmental program adviser to the National Ocean and Atmospheric
Administration's fisheries programs.

Of the 26 federally protected salmon and steelhead runs on the West Coast,
all but one - Southern California steelhead - will eventually be reviewed in
light of the new policy, Lecky said. Fifteen of the runs have been
challenged by various groups; of those, NOAA-Fisheries is under court
pressure to decide quickly.

"This doesn't necessarily mean they will be delisted or reclassified," Lecky
said. "We don't know how many will actually be affected."

The memo outlining the proposed new policy, a copy of which was obtained by
the News Tribune, concluded hatchery fish that are genetically "no more than
moderately divergent" from wild ones will be considered when deciding
whether a run should receive federal protection. The phrase "moderately
divergent" was not defined.

But the memo also said federal officials will recognize the "necessity" of
conserving wild salmon populations and the ecosystems salmon depend on.

Lecky conceded the policy, if finally adopted, would be controversial. Asked
about White House involvement, Lecky said top environmental officials in the
White House routinely review such policy changes.

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 519 4810 ce

415  383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumin.org (secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

 

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