Here are a few articles worth digging into:
Bakke lays out the case for rethinking hatchery programs in the Northwest
Oregonian: Fish management agencies are continuing to contribute to the decline and extinction of wild salmon and steelhead, and that contribution is even more serious than that of land and water management agencies in their determined degradation of salmonid habitat. It’s more serious because the fish management agencies are charged with protecting fish, recovery of wild fish and preventing their decline.
National Marine Fisheries Service states hatchery fish harming endangered Columbia Basin salmonids
Oregonian: The overall ecosystem picture is bleak. The hatchery fish interbreed with wild fish and can weaken the genetic stock. They’re more subject to disease that can spread into wild runs. They take up habitat and food, and in some cases, prey on the wild fish.
Don’t be a half-hearted fanatic: Get involved now
Upper Deschutes River Steward Tom Davis sent us this article from Orion: We all need the occasional escape, or even indulgence. But we must be able to pursue those escapes and indulgences with the knowledge that others are rushing into the burning building… And that, frankly, is part of the problem: there aren’t nearly enough of us working anywhere near hard enough to stop this culture from killing the planet. Obviously, or the world would be getting healthier, instead of being desecrated with ever increasing speed. If there were more of us trying to stop this culture from killing the planet, then those who are working themselves to death could afford to take a little time off and not feel as if things would fall apart while they climbed the mountains or ran the rivers.
Sockeye salmon boom in BC
Seattle Times: The biggest sockeye run in nearly a century is headed back to British Columbia’s Fraser River and its tributaries. An estimated 25 million fish have returned, more than double preseason forecasts. The runs are yielding an unexpected bonanza for U.S. and Canadian commercial fishermen who are more used to feuding over dwindling shares of a declining resource.
