Hatchery & wild co-exist?
Scientists studying salmon in the estuaries at the mouth of the Columbia River are warning that hatcheries intended to boost runs of big Chinook may be doing the river’s wild fish more harm than good.
“Overall, the historical replacement of diverse wild populations with fewer hatchery stocks of a narrow size range and migration timing has intensified nearshore habitat use during the spring-summer migration peak and reduced life-history variation of Columbia River Chinook salmon,” they wrote in the draft of a peer-reviewed paper published online by the North American Journal of Fisheries Management last week. “Such changes could undermine the fish conservation goals of both hatchery mitigation and estuary restoration programs” on the Columbia.
LINK (via Craig Medred)
