Salmon sensibility

We’re not fish biologists, but we’re pretty sure that a salmon is still a salmon even if grew up in a hatchery rather than a river.

Which is not to say all salmon, or their cousins the steelhead, are equal.

Fortunately, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals understands these distinctions.

A three-judge panel ruled last week that the federal government can continue to use hatchery-raised salmon to augment their wild (meaning non-hatchery) counterparts.

However, the judges decided that the feds can’t count hatchery salmon as wild fish when deciding whether a particular salmon run needs protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Both rulings make sense.

Salmon anglers, whether commercial or sport, don’t care whether the fish they hook are wild or hatchery-raised. They just want to catch a salmon.

However, research shows that hatchery-raised fish are less likely to survive than wild fish.

It would, then, be a mistake to assume that hatcheries can sustain salmon populations and thus ESA protections are superfluous.

Restoring runs of wild salmon and steelhead is a worthwhile goal. We’re glad that the courts recognize hatcheries can play a vital role in keeping salmon in our rivers.