Present and Future Status of Conservation Hatchery Programs for Pacific Salmon

Of the nearly 400 hatchery programs that exist for Pacific salmon, many focus on conservation of species listed under the Endangered Species Act or species of local concern.  We surveyed the use of artificial propagation technology, monitoring, relationship of conservation programs to habitat and stages of population recovery, and the projected impacts of climate change. Use of technology varies from intensive intervention in the life-cycle (such as removing eggs from redds for multi-year captive brood stock programs) to minimal (such as streamside incubators).  Monitoring remains primarily focused on aquacultural parameters but may include post-release behavior and survival, genetics, and demographic objectives where these address local management questions.  Hatchery strategies are in many cases tied to population status and expectations for different stages of recovery (e.g., population preservation, reintroduction or expanded use of habitat, and local adaptation of self-sustaining natural populations).  Based on this, hatcheries are likely to remain a tool for managing changing population status as habitats change, whether from recovery efforts or development and climate change.