The term “gene bank” likely prompts images of scientists in lab coats putting samples into a cryogenic deep freeze, but as far as the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and local fishing enthusiasts with Trout Unlimited are concerned, the setting is much more bucolic: streams and rivers. And the genes belong to wild steelhead.
Steelhead are ocean-going trout, who like their salmon cousins, spawn in rivers and streams but spend much of their lives in saltwater. In 2007, Puget Sound steelhead were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. As part of its Steelhead Management Plan effort started in 2004, Fish and Wildlife has proposed selecting one river in each of three Puget Sound zones for designation as a steelhead gene bank. The designation would end the release of hatchery steelhead to reduce competition and promote the recovery of wild steelhead.
The three zones include Hood Canal and Strait of Juan de Fuca, Central and South Puget Sound and North Puget Sound. The river basin most likely for consideration in the North Puget Sound region is the Skagit River in Skagit County, but its basin includes the Sauk and Suiattle rivers in north Snohomish County.
The Skagit actually has a head start on the gene bank idea and provides a glimpse into why this approach shows promise. The state scaled back its release of hatchery smolts about six or seven years ago, and as part of a settlement of a suit filed by the Wild Fish Conservancy, it halted release of hatchery steelhead altogether last year for at least a 12-year period. Since 2011, said John McMillan, science director for Trout Unlimited’s Wild Steelhead Initiative, there’s been a rebound in wild steelhead returns on the Skagit, from a low of about 4,000 fish to about 9,000 in 2014. There are other factors involved, including stream restoration work by the Skagit Watershed Council, the state and others, McMillian said, but it’s believed the reduction in hatchery steelhead reduces competition for the wild fish and allows their numbers to rebound.
Trout Unlimited has a vested interest in the gene bank idea, admits Robert Masonis, its vice president for western conservation. The hope is that wild steelhead numbers can reach a point where state and federal fishery agencies will allow for longer catch-and-release seasons for wild steelhead. It is the opportunity to fish in rivers and streams, he said, that inspires their conservation efforts.
But there also may be a benefit for those who support the hatchery fisheries that allow for harvest of fish. Removing hatchery programs from rivers like the Skagit could free up more state money for hatchery programs on rivers where wild stocks are not considered productive enough to be self-supporting and hatcheries are the best way to support the fishery.
Fishing enthusiasts likely will never see Washington rivers teem with fish as they did in the 1950s and ’60s, but programs like the wild steelhead gene bank might at least save the species and the culture of fishing that values it.
Comment on gene bank proposal
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has scheduled an informational meeting from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Phinney Center in Seattle and three public hearings: 6 p.m. July 21 at Phinney Center; 6 p.m. July 27 at the Skagit PUD in Mount Vernon; and 6 p.m. July 28 at the Trinity Methodist Church in Sequim. Comments also can be provided online after Monday at tinyurl.com/WDFWstee
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the river basin in which local Trout Unlimited chapters have focused their habitat restoration work. Trout Unlimited’s area chapters have restored habitat in the Snohomish River Basin. The Skagit Watershed Council has led restoration work in the Skagit River Basin.
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