7755

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7755
• Author: White, R. J.
• Title: Why Wild Fish Matter
• USFW Year: 1992
• USFW - Doc Type: Balancing Ecological and Aquacultural Fishery Management
• Copyright Material: YES

RESERVOIRS ON THE COLUMBIkSNAKE
RIVER SYSTEM, AS ON OTHER RIVERS,
ARE ANOTHER HABITAT DAMAGE FOR
WILD SALMON. THEY IMPEDE
UPSTREAM MIGRATION OF ADULTS (A
PROBLEM LARGELY SOLVED BY FISH
(ADDERS LIKE THE ONE IN FORE-
GROUND), BUT THEY FATALLY DELAY
SEAWARD MIGRATION OF JUVENILES.
AT RIGHT, THE BRUTEfORCE
REACTION-THE BARGING OF
JUVENILE SALMON-DOES NOT
WORK WEII ENOUGH TO ENABLE
RECOVERY. IT ONLY PROLONGS THE
DEATH OF THE SALMON STOCKS.
prodded by conservationists, Congress
passed the Northwest Povuer Planning
and Conservation Act (NPP(::~). 7~hr
legislation stipulated that fish and wild-
life be treated "cm a par" with other
river uses and as a "co-equal partner"
with hydroelectric power. For fish recto-
ration. it prodded ~1 billion in the first
decade. (S1.5 billion is budgeted for
the: second. } By about 1990, it vu~as cleat'
that at the behest of the hydros lectric
industry and associated interests, the
funds had been largeh frittered avyay
on hatcheries.
E.~ghtti~-nine fish hatcheries are now
operated by state, federal and tribal
agencies in ~4`ashington, Oregon and
Idaho for the sake of the (:olumbia
River anadromous fishery alone. tilorr
are on the drawing boards. The hatch-
eries arc operated largely in gain, while
basic pro})lems of mainstem flow tin)-
ing remain unremedied, and while
much of t])e habitat in thousands of
miles of non-dammed Columbia basin
streams that could he producing s<thnon
anti steelhead stays in bad shape due to
oyets;rauing, logging, pollution, and
other abuses, all of which could bccon-
u-olled to help restore the wild fish.
AVOIDING THE 155UE
'This is not the• first massive Anu~rirtn
fish resource tragedy but may 1)e the
largest, and nrty have been a relatively
avoidable one. Because of darns anti
watershed ahusr, the Nast Coast's.-~tlan-
tic salrne)n almost disappeared and have
not been restored. The Great L•tkes'
bountiful assemblage of native fishca-
snugeon,lake u•out, blue pike, blackfin
Cisco and others-was so oyerfished,
had its habitat so polluted and other=
wise degraded, and vuas so disrupted I)y
exotic species, that it was almost cony
plcteh~ replaced by a conununity of in-
U-t-dcrfishes. People were responsible.
~1ost of that situation cannot be re-
couped. The abundance and diversitt
of cutthroat u'otus in the interior ~4'est
were devastated by nnrch the same gen-
eral processes, though different in de-
tails. IL9ost of these losses concluded
only a few decades ago, within the life-
times of many of us. But compared to
now, people then were less able u) rec-
ognize what was happening and know
what to do about it.
In contrast. the debacle of the: re-
cently magnificent (;olumbr<t-Snake
salmon and strclhead fishery proceeds
with official awareness. To date, there
hasp t been sufficient will to halt or
reverse: the trend. People stood by and
watched t1)e resc» ure go down the t ubes,
knowing that the clams and reservoirs
were bad fbr the salmon-anti being
told that hatcheries would make up for
the damage'. Othclald(1IIl-Ills' \orth-
west Power Planning Council, Bonne-
villc Power Administration (BP.~1), and
Army Corps of L•'ngineers, tvuh acquies-
cence of governors, legislatures, and
state and federal fishery agencies-
0 ~r-tut~•r arunty te~r~
DAMS, POWERHOUSES AND