American Fisheries Conference Explores Hatchery Issues, Hatchery/Wild Fish Interactions, Resiliency

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Some five billion hatchery salmon and steelhead are released into the North Pacific each year, including fish from 155 salmon, steelhead and trout hatcheries in the Northwest. But it’s the natural populations of fish that biologists believe to be the most resilient to climate change, according to a series of oral presentations at the 145th American Fisheries Society conference in Portland.

With three treatments of fish production – segregated hatchery, integrated or conservation hatchery, and reserved areas for natural spawning only – it’s the segregated model that seems to be disappearing from use. Part of the reason may be the fitness of hatchery salmon, according to many of the speakers at the conference.

Read the bulletin here…