Council approves expansion of Snake River sockeye production
June 14, 2006
BOISE — The Northwest Power and Conservation Council today approved a $2.7 million renovation of hatchery facilities to increase production of Snake River sockeye salmon, a species that was listed as endangered in 1991 and has been sustained by artificial production ever since.
“Snake River sockeye are unique and important, and their numbers are critically low,” Council Chairman Tom Karier said. “This investment is important to the effort to preserve and rebuild the species.”
The increased production is an element of the 2004 Biological Opinion on Federal Columbia River Power System operations, which directs federal activities to protect and rebuild threatened and endangered fish species. The biological opinion calls for boosting sockeye production by 150,000 fish annually, which would about double the current smolt production. The 2004 Biological Opinion is being rewritten in response to a federal court order, but work directed by the document continues.
The renovation would be funded by the Bonneville Power Administration through the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The Council received a letter of support for the expenditure and expanded production from NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency that implements the Endangered Species Act for salmon and steelhead.
Ironically, the Council’s approval follows a recent recommendation by the Council’s own scientific review panel to terminate the project. The Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP) recommended against continued funding of the project, beginning in Fiscal Year 2007, largely because of discouragingly low returns of adult fish to spawn.
“The science panel makes the point that this is a high-risk investment,” Karier said. “But sometimes you have to make high-risk investments in order to rescue an imperiled species. We need to exhaust every opportunity before changing the course we’re on.”
Two hatcheries would be affected. One is the Oxbow Hatchery, which is operated by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and located near Bonneville Dam. The other is the Eagle Hatchery at Eagle, Idaho, near Boise. It is operated by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. At the Eagle facility, water-delivery and drain systems would be redesigned and constructed and a covered hatchery building would be built. At the Oregon facility, the work includes expanding water-delivery and drain systems, improving pollution controls, and modifying fish incubation and rearing systems.
The emphasis of the current sockeye program at the hatcheries is to raise and hold 300 adult sockeye and spawn them in captivity. The progeny are released into three lakes at the headwaters of the Salmon River in central Idaho.
Snake River sockeye were listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. Since then, ESA protection and artificial production have helped to keep the population from extinction. Snake River sockeye are the most southern sockeye species, and they also spawn at higher altitude, more than 6,000 feet above sea level, and travel farther to spawn than any other sockeye species, migrating more than 900 miles inland from the ocean via the Columbia, Snake, and Salmon rivers,.
As a condition of recommending funding for the increased production, the Council asked Bonneville to ensure that the wok can be funded through the 2006 fish and wildlife program capital budget, rather than the budget for the 2007-2009 funding cycle.
Contacts:
- , Chair, 509-623-4386
- , Information Officer, 503-222-5161