Regarding Wayne Kruse’s column in the Nov. 15 Herald, the reason there are no steelhead to be had this winter in most Puget Sounds rivers is because state Department of Fish and Wildlife hatchery steelhead programs have replaced wild steelhead with hatchery fish that are spectacularly ill-adapted to survive in the wild.
Even before last year’s disastrous steelhead season, hatchery steelhead returns to Puget Sound rivers for the past decade or so have hovered around three returning adult hatchery steelhead for every 1,000 hatchery smolts released, and only half of those returning adults are harvested by recreational or tribal fishers. Stated somewhat more directly, every hatchery steelhead brought to hand costs $635. If last year’s return rates are repeated, we can expect no more than 350 to 500 hatchery steelhead to return to the entire Snohomish system at a cost of about $500,000. Of those, about half will be caught. On the other hand, about 4,000 wild steelhead will return to the system for free and fishing will be closed when they arrive.
It is worth comparing wild returns to the Skagit and Nisqually rivers which have not been planted with hatchery steelhead: The Skagit is four years hatchery free; The Nisqually 20-plus years hatchery free. The Skagit wild return has increased about four fold. The Nisqually wild return has increased from perhaps 150 to 200 wild steelhead to more than 3,000, a 20-fold increase.
All of the above simply illustrates the bankruptcy of the Fish and Wildlife’s hatchery-based management paradigm, one that harms rather than helps wild steelhead. Absent an about-face in Olympia, you won’t see improvements in steelhead any time soon.
Peter W. Soverel, president
The Conservation Angler
Edmonds
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