REVIEWING HATCHERY PROGRAMS

From 2001 through 2003, the HSRG systematically reviewed all hatchery programs in the Puget Sound and Washington coast area. Early in the process, the HSRG and the Coordinating Committee agreed that hatchery programs should no longer be seen as surrogates for lost habitat. Instead, hatchery programs must be viewed as tools that can be managed as part of an integrated strategy to meet watershed or regional resource goals, in concert with actions affecting habitat, harvest rates, water allocation, and other factors. For this reason, they divided Puget Sound and the coast into ten regions, and made region-by-region recommendations based on: (1) regional management goals for conservation, harvest, and other purposes; (2) stock status (biological significance and population viability); (3) habitat status (current and future); and (4) the particulars of each hatchery program. These ten regions are:

• Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca
• South Puget Sound
• Stillaguamish/Snohomish Rivers
• Skagit River Basin
• Nooksack/Samish Rivers
• Central Puget Sound
• Hood Canal
• Willapa Bay
• North Coast
• Grays Harbor

For each regional review the HSRG toured the facilities and programs, considered stock and habitat information provided by the managers, considered the benefits and risks to all stocks that result from each hatchery program, met with the managers to discuss the findings, and then produced specific recommendations for reducing the risks and maximizing benefits from each program. The HSRG's regional review process produced nearly 1,000 program-specific recommendations, and a number of system-wide recommendations (those that affect management of programs across the Puget Sound and coastal Washington system).