Hatcheries

Hatcheries have been used in North America for over 130 years to "mitigate" the damage to fish and habitat caused by hydropower, harvest and habitat degradation and to provide fish for recreational fishing. We know quite a bit more now than we knew then, and it has become clear that the answer to dwindling trout and salmon populations is rarely to simply ratchet up hatchery production. In fact, in more and more cases, evidence shows that our hatchery practices of the past not only do not solve fisheries problems, but also are part of the problem.

TU works to update and reform the use of hatcheries to recover imperiled fish populations. In cases where hatchery fish are used to supplement recreational fisheries, TU works to ensure that the artificial populations do not compromise native populations through competition for food and habitat, disease propagation or genetic dilution.

Problem: Dilution of native fish gene pools through stocking of non-native species.

Native trout and salmon species are of special value and concern because their genetic makeup is uniquely adapted and irreplaceable. Remaining native fish strongholds are some of the last reserves of the fish genetics that have evolved and adapted to changing natural surroundings through millennia. In some cases, the introduction of non-native fish into those areas results in inter-breeding and hybridization between fish stocks, diluting native fish genetics and weakening native fish adaptability and ability to survive.

Solution: Advocate for legal provisions that will protect native fish against genetic introgression from introduced non-natives.

The California golden trout is native to only two high-altitude watersheds in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Today, it has stable populations in only 4 percent of its historic range. The golden trout has received protection from state and federal agencies, but still has suffered from habitat degradation and years of stocking non-native trout.

The golden trout is extremely susceptible to hybridization with non-native rainbow trout, which have been heavily stocked in remaining golden trout strongholds of the Sierra Nevada. Today, artificial fish barriers and repeated chemical treatments to eradicate non-native trout are the main measures protecting the goldens' genetic legacy in California. Still, rainbows continue to co-mingle with goldens through much of their historic habitat, and hybridization is continuing to take its toll.

In October 2000, TU filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the California golden trout as endangered. TU hopes that additional protections - in both habitat and hatchery realms - for the golden trout will be enacted to stop further loss of genetic integrity and prevent its extinction. Such protections would likely render an endangered listing unnecessary.

Problem: Introduced exotic fish compete with native fish for food, spawning habitat and space.

American angling has had an odd love affair with hatcheries, especially when it comes to introducing non-native fish for sport fishing into areas occupied by native species. Non-native brook trout, for instance, were widely introduced into Western trout streams earlier in the 20th century. In many cases those introductions were too successful: non-native populations grew too rapidly, and native trout, such as the various cutthroat sub-species native to the West, gradually disappeared.

Solution: Isolate and rear remnant populations of native trout in areas where non-native fish have forced them out.

Hatcheries can be used to restore and reintroduce genetically important native fish. The strikingly colored greenback cutthroat trout, native to the South Platte and Arkansas rivers in Colorado and some areas of southeast Wyoming, fell victim to the inundation of non-native brook trout and other exotics. By the 1960s, the greenbacks were thought to be extinct. However, upon the discovery of small remnant populations of greenbacks, fish managers acted quickly to preserve the fish and allow them to reproduce in captivity.

As the native broodstock was propagated and preserved in hatcheries, the greenback's former natural habitat was cleared of introduced brook trout. Once clear, greenbacks reared from native broodstock were re-introduced into former stronghold streams, and naturally reproducing greenback populations emerged. The re-introduction was so successful that soon greenback populations were strong and self-sustaining enough to allow for catch-and-release fishing in some areas. If the success continues, Colorado's native greenback cutthroats should become eligible for de-listing from the Endangered Species Act.

Problem: Trout stocking programs spread disease.

Hatchery-reared fish can carry disease. When diseased fish are released into the wild, they can spread the disease to wild fish.

Solution: Working with hatchery managers to minimize or eliminate the spread of disease from hatcheries to natural environments.

The most noteworthy case of trout disease in recent years is the spread of whirling disease in the West. Whirling disease rose to prominence in the 1990s when rainbow trout populations in Montana's Madison River dropped some 90 percent in just one year. Even though Montana does not stock its streams, early research into the spread of whirling disease west-wide pointed to hatcheries as one possible source of the infection that causes the disease. Most Western states quickly acted to screen both government-operated and private hatcheries for whirling disease-infected fish.

In Colorado, however, the state Division of Wildlife (CDOW) continued to knowingly stock whirling disease-infected fish from its hatcheries into streams and lakes. Soon the disease had spread to nearly every basin in Colorado. In 1996, TU convinced state hatchery managers to discontinue stocking infected fish in most areas. The state continued stocking in what were termed "low risk" waters, primarily high country lakes and reservoirs.

Still, TU was determined, pointing to findings that showed that in areas where infected fish had been introduced, infection rates were high, as were areas downstream. And in areas upstream of infected stocking or in areas where that practice had been stopped, infection rates were lower. Finally, the CDOW reached the conclusion TU had supported for years, and in November 2000 announced a new whirling disease policy that will curtail the stocking of infected fish in all Colorado waters until 2002 and terminate it altogether by 2003.