NOAA Fisheries Service is committed to protecting and conserving self-sustaining wild salmon populations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The viability of salmon and steelhead is characterized by their abundance, productivity, spatial structure, and genetic/behavioral diversity. It incorporates the concept that high abundance of hatchery salmon, alone, is not adequate to demonstrate viability of a distinct population segment (DPS) of a salmon species. (NOAA uses the evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) to identify a salmon DPS, but retains DPS for steelhead (PDF 65KB).)
This agency’s 1993 interim policy on artificial propagation of Pacific salmon stated that hatchery fish in an ESU should be listed only if they were deemed to be essential to the survival of that population. Then a lawsuit was filed challenging the NOAA Fisheries Service 1998 listing of Oregon coast coho. Judge Hogan ruled on Sept. 12, 2001 (the Alsea decision), that any hatchery population that is part of the same ESU as a listed wild population must also be listed under the ESA. NOAA decided to modify the previous hatchery policy so it would conform with this ruling.
NOAA Fisheries Service released its revised draft hatchery listing policy in June 2004. The agency held public meetings and took comments on the draft, and published the final policy in the Federal Register in June 2005 (PDF 98KB). The policy follows careful scientific review of both hatchery and naturally spawning fish, and carefully considers the risks and potential benefits of hatcheries to the primary goal of recovering naturally spawning species.
On June 13, 2007, Judge John C. Coughenour of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington in Seattle, rendered a decision setting aside the NOAA Fisheries Service’s 2005 Final Hatchery Listing Policy as contrary to the ESA. The 2005 policy is the subject of litigation in other courts, so it remains to be seen how NOAA Fisheries will ultimately consider hatchery fish in making ESA listing decisions.
The comprehensive effects of hatcheries are complicated. Critics of hatcheries tend to emphasize the potential risks, while not emphasizing the potential benefits. There is great diversity among the types of hatcheries being operated in the Northwest, and research continues to be conducted on hatcheries.
NOAA Fisheries Service takes seriously its Endangered Species Act obligations to recover salmon. The agency is working to address the entire life cycle of salmon and steelhead, including funding hundreds of salmon habitat and restoration projects to improve in-stream and estuary habitat conditions; state-of-the-art technology to improve fish passage and survival through hydroelectric dams; improving harvest management techniques; and reforming hatchery management practices.
