NATIVE FISH SOCIETY

P.O. Box 19570

Portland, Oregon 97280

(503) 977-0287

Email: bmbakke@qwest.net

http://www.nativefishsociety.org/

Testimony on Harvest

Before a Congressional Committee

October 11, 2005

By Bill M. Bakke

Salmon are locally adapted. That means they return from the sea to their home river to reproduce and rear their young. We have known this since 1854 and it has been confirmed again and again since then. Therefore the scientific and practical basis for managing salmon and steelhead is to make sure that there are enough adult spawners to seed the habitat of their natal stream. But that is not all. The adults also import nutrients that enrich the streams and improve their productivity for rearing juvenile salmon. There must also be enough adults spawning to maintain the genetic integrity of the population and its continuing capacity to adapt to fluctuating and changing environmental conditions. Wildlife also depends on salmon for part of their food supply.

Taken together the salmon help support productive rivers and provide ecological services to society.

The role and purpose of harvest is to not only provide the public market with salmon it is also responsible for delivering the adults to their home stream spawning grounds in good condition. These two purposes are linked, but if that link is diminished or broken the salmon and the benefits they provide to society go away.

Harvest is not the only human activity that can cause salmon to decline, but more importantly, it makes a specific contribution to it. The problem to be solved is this: Harvest must be managed so that it does not impede the recovery of ESA-listed salmon populations or the productivity of those populations that could become endangered.

Harvest is conducted in “mixed-stock” fisheries; this means that fish from many rivers are harvested together. This happens in ocean, in-river, recreational and commercial fisheries. These fisheries are insensitive to the spawner abundance needs in our rivers.

Transforming mixed stock to selective fisheries is the challenge. Improvements are being made, but until the fisheries are accountable to spawner abundance objectives by species and river, harvest will continue to contribute to salmon decline.

Harvest of ESA-listed salmon is illegal. Fisheries cannot target fish protected by the Endangered Species Act. But fisheries are managed to target hatchery fish, allowing an incidental kill of ESA-listed fish. What is not known is whether this incidental take is too high to support recovery of the listed fish. The state and federal agencies with authority over harvest and its impact on listed fish cannot tell you whether their actions are impeding recovery or not. This is a problem. It must be corrected.

Investments in habitat improvements provide important benefits to salmon streams, however, those investments by citizens, counties, cities and states are jeopardized if harvest does not deliver the natural spawners needed in each of those streams. Harvest management cannot be in conflict with the good works of the public to recover salmon, nor be in conflict with federal law to recover ESA-listed salmon. Harvest must become part of the solution rather than contributing to the problem of salmon decline.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Mark all hatchery salmon so they can be identified in the harvest and in the streams when they stray.

2. Fund selective harvest experiments and technologies to control the incidental by-catch of naturally produced salmon so that specific spawner abundance objectives by species and river can be achieved.

3. Require harvest accounting to determine whether harvest is impeding recovery of ESA-listed salmon by species and river. This will also require funding support.

4. Enforce the law. It is illegal to kill ESA-listed salmonids and any incidental take must not impede recovery of individual salmon and steelhead populations. The agencies with authority over harvest must be able to show that they are within the law.

5. Make sure that harvest is supporting public investments in salmon habitat.

6. Require the agencies to establish spawner abundance objectives for each species and river and to document annually their results to the public.