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Eagle Creek (Clackamas) Hatchery Ceasing Production

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#21 ·
No fish of any kind raised at Eagle Creek hatchery going forward? And no hatchery fish at all released into Eagle Creek anymore? Is that what I'm reading?
 
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#26 ·
Sigh... I had hoped for years that some sort of broodstock program or some ability to maintain spawning segregation between wild and hatchery stocks would allow hatchery fish propagation to continue on Eagle Creek, especially since it's so close to PDX. In the end, it appears to be, not wild vs hatchery issues killing the program, but budget constraints. I hate to say it, but I don't see budget issues getting any better soon. The Eagle Creek hatchery was a national hatchery and our nation has max'ed out its credit card. They can still print all the money they want, but only until the bond market breaks, which looks more likely than ever IMHO - no matter next month's result. Our debt/GDP is at post-WW2 levels. We haven't had a balanced budget since the tech bubble. Upsetting to see it affect fish hatcheries. I hope the wild stocks do well... Thanks for the info AA.
 
#28 ·
If they just closed Eagle Creek for all salmon and steelhead fishing for 5 years, all the remaining Hatchery fish would spawn naturally and then the government would call them natives, and be put under protection…

Look at the Green Peter scam lowering the water levels to increase smolt survival for fish that were originally planted… Are those really native fish? Hell…. At this stage in the game I’d bet there are more cross breed fish native and hatchery than anyone can really know for certain.
 
#29 ·
Our rivers, streams, and oceans no longer exist in original condition. There's a point at which the differences between native, wild, and residual hatchery fish become meaningless. I think that point is when there's a major survival challenge, like now (multiple challenges including lower flows, altered channels, and climate change). The fish that can survive and propagate the best are the ones we want in the river. Without hatchery production, that's what we'll have left in Eagle Creek. One problem with hatcheries has always been the threat of funding problems to keep it going, as we're seeing here. (I'm not against hatcheries) I'm confident the wild fish will hang on, if at low levels. I hope it's enough for a fishing season.
 
#30 ·
Wild Chrome said:
Our rivers, streams, and oceans no longer exist in original condition. There's a point at which the differences between native, wild, and residual hatchery fish become meaningless. I think that point is when there's a major survival challenge, like now (multiple challenges including lower flows, altered channels, and climate change). The fish that can survive and propagate the best are the ones we want in the river. Without hatchery production, that's what we'll have left in Eagle Creek. One problem with hatcheries has always been the threat of funding problems to keep it going, as we're seeing here. (I'm not against hatcheries) I'm confident the wild fish will hang on, if at low levels. I hope it's enough for a fishing season.
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If you can't keep a fish what's the point?

I don't buy a Sportspac for opportunity. I buy a Sportspac to harvest the resources for consumption.
 
#31 ·
Wild Chrome said:
Our rivers, streams, and oceans no longer exist in original condition. There's a point at which the differences between native, wild, and residual hatchery fish become meaningless. I think that point is when there's a major survival challenge, like now (multiple challenges including lower flows, altered channels, and climate change). The fish that can survive and propagate the best are the ones we want in the river. Without hatchery production, that's what we'll have left in Eagle Creek. One problem with hatcheries has always been the threat of funding problems to keep it going, as we're seeing here. (I'm not against hatcheries) I'm confident the wild fish will hang on, if at low levels. I hope it's enough for a fishing season.
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Here is what “hope” and the closure of hatcheries get us, 100% of the time. Again, for those in the back row, rivers die when hatcheries are closed.

 
#32 ·
Chris N. This is a tough nut to crack. Several thoughts come to mind and my first one was the inability of our hatcheries to raise viable robust smolts. If they’re not built to survive, they won’t. They’re panmered in non stream like conditions, over fed and possibly their release times ore poorly timed. When survival from egg to returning adult isn’t any better, (maybe worse) than wild spawned, the system is completely at fault.

Another issue is stream fertility. The fertility is based on the condition of the entire watershed, not just the stream bed. The testing of water samples and comparing them to those from the days when stream production would reveal changes for sure. It doesn’t take much change to produce a dramatic effect.

High water events affect stream condition along with the food supply. They destroy/change the entire stream bed and the tiny organisms that live there, including things as large as Crawdads. A stream that doesn’t support a large Crawdad population of all age groups has a real problem. This isn’t difficult to document.

Smolt size/age: Naturally spawned fish take a very leisurely trip downstream to the salt. Once they reach brackish water they hang around a while, taking advantage of the abundant food supply and adjusting to the new environment. There’s nothing leisurely (natural) about the hatchery smolt migration, it’s quick and over with because of their size and release date. They also overwhelm the food supply in many streams by their sheer numbers when they’re all released at once. Stream fertility plays an important part here as well.

I’ll stop, you get the idea.
 
#33 ·
Fair Chase said:
If you can't keep a fish what's the point?
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The "chase". Is that "fair"? I love eating fish too, but will be the first to say that wild fish (esp steelhead) are more aggressive and better fighters on average. A great fish to me isn't a cookie cutter hatchery brat, it's any fish that kicks my butt or otherwise makes me giggle at what just happened. They're why I set my alarm clock the night before a fishing trip.

jagosh said:
Again, for those in the back row, rivers die when hatcheries are closed.
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Rivers also die when flows dry up and when the ocean is sick.
 
#36 ·
#37 ·
I might be wrong but that's the hatchery that supplies smolts to a local river near me. Will be interested to see the outcome going forward. And this is in WA state FYI.
 
#40 ·
DogZilla15 said:
Define, “great.”
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I've seen on TV. The river choked with huge salmon. HUGE, dark brown, salmon. You can walk across the rivers on the backs of salmon! Didn't all those Chinooks come from the Northwest? Though as I think I understand, the massive alewife population in The Great Lakes is what feeds the runs?
I dunno, seems we're too hung up on turning things back to where they were a couple hundred years ago. I no longer pay them more and more for less and less. Doesn't mean I'm not saddened for those still paying them.
 
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