Friday, August 08, 2003
By Russ Mohney russm@localaccess.com, The Chronicle
A couple of weeks ago we commented on the escape of several hundred juvenile Atlantic salmon into Scatter Creek and information that indicated the fish were also caught in state Department of Fish and Wildlife smolt traps further down the Chehalis River. Evidence continues to exist that suggests the non-native species are in the Skookumchuck as well.
The presence of Atlantic smolts in our local watershed is not, however, nearly as threatening as it first seemed. Much of our original concern was based on a series of reports from sources on the British Columbia coast that claimed escaped Atlantics had seriously altered native spawning efforts on some coastal rivers there.
A pair of articles this past week in The Chronicle by Sen. Dan Swecker quite effectively made the case that the escape of a few hundred smolts at Rochester posed little threat to native species in the Chehalis system.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have discussed the question with professional fishery biologists from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and from the Ministry of Fisheries in British Columbia, who were working with Fisheries Canada on that precise question.
I'm fairly comfortable that the Atlantics in local waters don't pose much of a threat to local salmon and trout stocks.
It is important to note that the reports of native salmon degradation in B.C. rivers due to the introduction of Atlantics, which Canadian biologists say are greatly exaggerated, were produced by commercial salmon fishing interests intent on eliminating competition from farm-raised salmon.
Sen. Swecker's rebuttal, which biologists say is much more reasonable and accurate, does, however, represent the question directly from the perspective of commercial salmon farmers — for whom Swecker is the leading industry spokesperson.
WDFW biologist Jack Tipping, for many years the lead biologist on the Cowlitz system, agrees that Atlantic salmon are generally not a worry for those who manage the hatchery and wild fisheries in the Northwest. Tipping caught juvenile Atlantics on many occasions in the Cowlitz, presumably escapees from a commercial fish farm upstream from Mayfield Lake.
He said he considers the Atlantic salmon kind of "wimpy," and very unlikely to affect any trout or salmon fishery on that system. In his years of experience on the Cowlitz, Atlantics were never a biological factor, even as a minor nuisance to other fisheries.
Tipping is also quite sure the young fish now in the Chehalis don't have the strength or numbers to become established here. In fact, he suggested that for a few weeks they might provide an interesting target fishery for folks who would like to try to catch a mess of them for dinner! Tipping agreed that the escape of adult Atlantic salmon from a saltwater net pen could have an impact on a stream that is managed exclusively for wild salmon, mostly because of the small number of available spawning native adults. But, he quickly added, that situation has not been reported anywhere by his Canadian counterparts.
I believe the escape of any non-native species into a Northwest ecosystem throws up red flags and alarms, and rightly so. We are familiar with the progress of Himalaya blackberries, Scotch broom, aquatic milfoil, European starlings, house sparrows and a host of other aliens that have seriously impacted our native environment. Newcomers like Kudzu and Africanized honeybees continue to cause havoc in places they've colonized — and eradication will be time-consuming and expensive.
That, happily does not appear to be the case with Atlantic salmon. While I don't completely buy the assertion that Atlantics — or any other species, for that matter — completely lose their reproductive instinct after a generation or two of captive production, evidence indicates the Atlantic has not been able to make any widespread colonization of coastal Pacific streams.
Neither do I accept, on the other hand, that Atlantic salmon have caused the loss of huge runs of native salmon in Canada or Alaska — or that the food additive used to enhance the color of farmed salmon flesh is somehow detrimental to the health of anyone who eats it a couple of times a month.
I got a note from someone who lives along Scatter Creek asking if it was legal to catch and keep those Atlantic smolts. It is, and next week we'll shift gears and talk about catching Atlantic salmon smolts locally for sport and maybe a nice breakfast.
Meanwhile, don't spend a lot of time worrying about them.
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