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Methow Valley News September 21, 2000 Endangered Species Wayward salmon eggs find home on Columbia By John Hanron More than a million "excess" salmon eggs that were destined for burial have been granted a new lease on life in the Hanford Reach area of the mid-Columbia River. The eggs, taken from returning Carson stock spring Chinook salmon at the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery, were marked for destruction as part of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s efforts to phase out the Carson stock from the Methow River system. NMFS believes that the so-called Methow composite stock is genetically closer to being truly wild, and thus is protected by the Endangered Species Act. It sees the Carson stock as being detrimental to the Methow composite stock. NMFS directed the Winthrop hatchery to limit its population of Carson stock eggs this year to just 300,000. But hatchery workers collected 2.35 million Carson eggs and were facing either finding another place to rear them or bury them behind the Winthrop hatchery. The plan did not sit well with the public or with several elected officials, who said it did not make sense to destroy salmon eggs in the name of salmon recovery. "Thanks to elected state and federal officials we saved them all," said Greg Pratschner, manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Leavenworth hatchery complex, which includes the national hatchery in Winthrop. The 1.1 million eggs that had no home will be released in the Ringold State Fish Hatchery, on the lower edge of the Hanford Reach near the Tri-Cities. The state will pay for the rearing of the fish. Sen. Slade Gorton has promised $184,000 for marking the fish before they are released into the Columbia River. Half of the eggs bound for the Big White Ponds and the Ringold hatchery will be housed at the Leaven-worth hatchery for the winter; the other half at the Winthrop hatchery. The fry will be transferred to their new locations in March or April 2001. "I think we have passed every hurdle there was to pass," Pratschner said. The adults that return to Ringold would be collected and given to the Umatilla Tribe for its restoration programs in the Umatilla and Walla Walla rivers. Another 635,000 of the Carson eggs will be reared in the Big White Ponds at the USFWS Spring Creek Hatchery on the Big White Salmon River. The Winthrop hatchery will also be rearing 150,000 of the eggs for release into Omak Creek. About 300,000 of the eggs will be raised for release into the Methow River. Pratschner said his agency and others will be "working diligently" to be prepared for next year’s expected increase in returning spring Chinook salmon. He said excess adults may be offered to the tribes and prisons for food before they are spawned. He said he would like to avoid a repeat of this summer’s dilemma and be ready to address the situation next year. "It’s been the summer from hell, really," he said. "I think we’re out of the woods." Opinion | Sports |
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