The current issue of The Osprey has an excellent article that all wild fish supporters should read. While the title is unwieldy, “Reflections of American Conservation and Economic History in Relation to Wild Salmon and Steelhead”, the contents are well written and expansive hitting on many of the topics I like to cover. I’ll give a very brief summary, little more than a teaser, and encourage you to read it yourself. It begins on page 16. Of course, if you love wild salmonids you should subscribe to this free publication and make a donation to support it. As an aside, I really dislike the way the issue is displayed on their website, but you can download it as a PDF for much easier reading.

An idea was promoted in 1960 that hatcheries could produce salmon in such an artificial manner that rivers would not be needed, an concept that continues to this day. Later in the 1960s the environmental movement in the US started to gain credibility but it did not extend to fish. “Rather than conserving the remaining “best” salmon habitat and managing harvest more conservatively, which is what happened with waterfowl, instead, agencies chose to invest in agriculture-like hatchery programs.” Fish were to be managed by a “farmer” concept, not by preserving habitat like with other forms wildlife.

The author points out that “if hatcheries demonstrably worked, the rivers that remain accessible would be teeming with salmon, given the billions of salmon and steelhead we’ve planted over the decades. In that context, agencies have not only proffered a salmon without rivers mantra, they’ve also largely turned a blind eye to the extensive body of evidence that indicate hatcheries harm wild fish, rather than help.”

The article then turns to another of my favorite topics: how can we improve conditions for fish with our endless quest for growth and the environmental destruction it brings? “This is our biggest challenge: How can a planet with finite resources sustain unlimited economic and human growth?”

Like I said, this was only a teaser summary. You really should read the article. You should also check out the Wild Salmon Center. They are the foremost organization working on the “stronghold” concept. This boils down to preserving existing watersheds where wild anadromous fish still have all the elements needed to thrive, or strongholds. Think of areas like national parks where wilderness is preserved but for fish rather than only wildlife.