Does anybody have a good link or website that shows some of the early hatcheries in this state or throughout the U.S.?
Any help would be apprecited.
David

our local paper has one of those columns about 100 years ago and others had a story about canneries planting early run kings in the chehalis from California in the 1890's also it seems like i read a sign by Chinook had the first hatchery

Go to your local library or bookstore and pick up a copy of Lichatowich's Salmon without Rivers. The failed history of artificial propagation of salmon is well chronicled in this landmark text.

The library should have it..if not:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=378&item=2495682807&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

It is also available via ABE Books (on-line) for 7.00 used.

Here is the Publishers Synopsis:

"""Publisher's Note

From a mountaintop where an eagle carries a salmon carcass to feed its young to the distant oceanic waters of the California current and the Alaskan Gyre, salmon have penetrated the Northwest to an extent unmatched by any other animal. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the natural productivity of salmon in Oregon, Washington, California, and Idaho has declined by eighty percent. The decline of Pacific salmon to the brink of extinction is a clear sign of serious problems in the region. In Salmon Without Rivers, fisheries biologist Jim Lichatowich offers an eye-opening look at the roots and evolution of the salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest. He describes the multitude of factors over the past century and a half that have led to the salmon's decline, and examines in depth the abject failure of restoration efforts that have focused almost exclusively on hatcheries to return salmon stocks to healthy levels without addressing the underlying causes of the decline. The book: -- describes the evolutionary history of the salmon along with the geologic history of the Pacific Northwest -- considers the indigenous cultures of the region, and the emergence of salmon-based economies that survived for thousands of years -- examines the rapid transformation of the region following the arrival of Europeans -- presents the history of efforts to protect and restore the salmon -- offers a critical assessment of why restoration efforts have failed Throughout, Lichatowich argues that the dominant worldview of our society -- a worldview that denies connections between humans and the natural world -- has created the conflict and controversy that characterize the recent history ofsalmon, and unless that worldview is challenged and changed, there is little hope for recovery.

In SALMON WITHOUT RIVERS, fisheries biologist Jim Lichatowich offers an eye-opening look at the roots and evolution of the salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest. He describes the multitude of factors over the past century and a half that have led to the salmon's decline, and examines in depth the abject failure of restoration efforts that have focused almost exclusively on hatcheries to return salmon stocks to healthy levels without addressing the underlying causes of the decline. Throughout, Lichatowich argues that the dominant worldview of our society--a worldview that denies connections between humans and the natural world--has created the conflict and controversy that characterize the recent history of salmon; unless that worldview is challenged and changed, there is little hope for recovery.""



Looks like one I need to read and add to my library. Thanks Doc for the reference.

Mike

D3S -
the history of hatcheries is a pretty broad topic, you may wish to narrow your discussion some. Hatcheries include not only salmon and steelhead but other "fish" inlcuded trout, various warm water species, sturgeon, clams, oyster, a number of salt water species (an interesting case is the white sea bass in Cali.), etc.

Hatchery history is much older than that in this state - As I recall the first hatchery in the State was near Chinook at about 1895 - a number of hatchery/egg take station were developed over the next decade including several in Puget Sound. The first efforts were federal.

In discussing the success or lack thereof one should be careful to define what the purpose of the program was/is.

Once you decide on the breath of your interst a quick search on Google or a visit to the UW fishery library should produce some interesting reading though you may have to sort through a number of documents which may well present conflicting views/opinions. If you take the time to look at the full range of info you will be in a position to developed an informed opinion based on your values. Or you take the easy out suggested by the FishNDoc and rely on one person's thinking on the topic.

Tight lines
S malma

here is the history of hatcheries in Washington state .
they have failed to...

Improve fish runs
Sustain profitable commercial fisheries
sustain high quality sport fisheries
sustain quality subsistence fisheries for tribes
mitigate for lost habitat
show promise for the future restoration of our diminished runs.

The Great Lakes Hatcheries seem to be doing pretty well....

There's a recent article out that I think all of you anti-hatchery folks should read.

Unfortunately, I gave my only copy to Bob to read for his homework.

I don't even recall what journal it was in. D'oh!

Bob - if you read this, would you please site the journal for all of us here and now.

S malma,

Are you saying you don't agree with the history that is presented in the above book? From my limited knowledge on the subject I didn't really see any discrepencies. In fact it pretty much is similar to what my Grandfather talked about when I was a kid.

Now I haven't gone and done the research you suggested but I'm still not convinced that the book in question is too far off.

Gary-
Not at all - I would agree that Lichatowich is pretty much right on target that hatcheries are a failure for restoration of the multitrude of the factors that caused the decline of our salmon.

Does that mean that hatchery are always bad? - I don't think so. Rather relying on hatcheries to make up of our distruction of the fish's habitats was a major mistake. We as a society attempted to take the easy way out by attempting to have our cake (use the fish's habitats for our own uses) and eat it as well (replace the lost production with hatcheries).

Over the last 150 years we have destroyed much of the productivity and capacity of our rivers to support anadromous fish. In Puget Sound habitat modeling indicates that the wild chinook potential our our rivers are only as little as 10% to maybe 50% of what they once were (most less than a 1/3 of historic potential). As a society we have not valued the resource enough to change our behaviors to restore or even preserve what little good habitat remains. The events of the last 24 hours clearly demostrates that we as a nation still don't value that resource enough to forgo the short term monentary gain of extracting reources from our watersheds.

In short the hatchery issue is very complex, what may be true of a salmon hatchery program may not be the case for a low land lake trout program or the seeding of a beach with clams. I merely was encouraging D3S to look at the full range of hatchery programs and their pros and cons so that he could form his own opinion based on his personal values.

As an aside I firmly belief that we need to figure out how to make hatcheries an workable part of the fishing sence if we going to continue to fish. At the rate at which we are destroying our river habitats even CnR will not be an option for many stocks of wild fish.

Tight lines
S malma

Hatchery fish or not its still a fish!!Im always happy to catch any fish, if your worried about depleted runs then dont fish. I dont understand why so many people on this board are anti-hatchery, dont tell me because of genetics, because its already happended. my 2 cents.

S malma,

I totally agree. Hatcheries definitely have their place.

Sooner or later we won't be able to fish for anything as the treaties don't allow the controls required to actually keep the runs alive for much longer IMHO. While I have absolutely nothing against the treaties I just feel that the way they are written doesn't give the biologists the ability to manage the fisheries correctly. It is so complicated now I don't see how anyone can do a good job of it.

I also feel that there are people that just think the resource is always going to be there so take what you want. Just look at all the gripes about snagging and poaching on the boards lately to see what I mean.

The sad thing is if you read the book it talks about exactly the same things only in 1890 instead of 2004! That is what is really sad! We as a race haven't gotten any better in the last 100+ years!

Smalma......thanks for a balanced input. Really.

I honestly believe that the all too common roadblock to success is created by only providing supportive arguments. It flat turns me away when I am fronted with a barrage of selective data that doesn't voluntarily show it's shortcomings. There seems to me to be a strong belief that "the end justifies the means" and anything goes as long as it gets me what I want. Shameful stuff, IMHO.

I find it refreshing and challenging to participate in a process which works towards a real solution, and that, in my estimation, seems most possible when ALL the data is considered.

We all want healthy fish runs, and whether anyone wants to address it or not, restoring rivers to a state where the maximum number of fish have spawning and rearing grounds won't do a single thing to increasing overall run sizes if we continue to manage for maximum sustainable harvest. We would only kill off the increase.....we are soooooo smart.

Here are few reference books that might help:

A history of Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead by the Army Corp of Engineers. This is an excellent reference guide that covers the CR fishery back to the 1800's and covers many of the things they have done and currently are doing to save salmon and steelhead.
http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/lsr/REPORTS/save_salmon/salmontoc.htm


and
Salmon and Society in the Pacific Northwest by the Commision of Life Sciences - A book that can be read online about the plight of anadromous fish in the Pacific Northwest.
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309053250/html/index.html

and
Blueprint for Hatchery Reform - Published by Trout Unlimited, it offers a "landscape approach" to hatchery reform in the PNW
http://www.tu.org/pdf/conservation/landscapemedia.pdf