The operators of salmon hatcheries in Southeast Alaska are warning that a proposed 25 percent reduction in the egg take of pink and chum salmon would have devastating consequences for the hatcheries, leading to job losses and the eventual closure of facilities.
Conservation groups have argued that the release of hatchery-raised salmon harms wild populations for decades. The backers of the proposal – Proposal 156 – claim that salmon hatcheries are one of the five biggest threats to the state’s wild Chinook populations, along with climate change, bycatch, intercept, and disease. However, advocates of ending or curtailing hatchery operations have struggled to convince state regulators to turn against the practice.
Proposal 156, submitted to the board by former commercial fisher and former Alaska State Board of Fisheries member Virgil Umphenour, is the latest effort to limit Alaska hatchery operations and would cut pink and chum salmon egg take at Southeast Alaska hatcheries by 25 percent.
“If this proposal at the Board of Fisheries were to pass, it would lead to ...
