Why Wild Salmon Matter

The other day, I was driving up Highway 2 in western Washington to fish the Skykomish River. Identical homes lined the landscape, just a quarter mile from the riverbank. This is all new development — asphalt and concrete replacing trees and wetlands. Where does the wastewater go, I wondered. This scene is repeated all over the Cascade Loop. Clear-cut slopes can’t hold the mud back when it rains, so it all pours into Washington’s rivers, turning them the color of your morning latté.

It’s all about maximizing profit, I realize, and as a small-business owner, I appreciate profit. But at what point does one person’s gain become a much larger negative for the overall community? I believe we’ve already passed the tipping point, which is why the Bush administration can keep a straight face while proposing preposterous rules that hurt our communities.

The most preposterous rule I have heard coming out of the Bush administration in a long time is the idea that hatchery salmon should be considered the same as wild salmon. This has everything to do with helping the developers and nothing to do with actually saving the salmon from the effects of climate change and human development.

Luckily, US District Judge Michael Hogan dealt a blow to the Bush administration goal in August when he ruled that wild salmon and hatchery-raised salmon do not have to be considered equal in the eyes of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The developers backing the Bush proposal felt that since so many hatchery-raised salmon were out in the wild, protection of wild salmon could be loosened without a significant drop in the number of overall salmon.

Their reasoning is obviously self-serving. And it’s flawed. As a hard-core fly-fisherman and sushi chef, I can attest to the distinct difference in wild and hatchery salmon. There’s really no comparison, and any fisherman worth his salt would agree.

I am passionate about this issue because I have seen the environmental degradation in my home country, Japan, ruin ecosystems. There are probably just one or two undammed rivers in all of Japan. I’m sad to say that for Japan, this argument about wild versus hatchery salmon is too late.

But it’s not too late in my adopted country, the US. We need to make sure that President Bush and his developer cronies don’t try to sneak some similar rules in the backdoor before the president leaves office.

If the administration had its way, Pacific wild salmon and steelhead would become less protected at a time when they are battling to survive. I bet that about 20% of the salmon in the Olympic area is wild, and on the rivers of the Puget Sound, the percentage is more like 3-5.

Those of you who don’t fish may wonder what the difference is between wild and hatchery-raised salmon. Wild salmon are bigger and stronger, having figured out a way to survive in the wild, and I would argue that they are better tasting because of their high fat content. They swim faster and catch (and eat) more herring.

Hatchery fish are born out of a pool of sperm and eggs all mixed together. There is plenty of evidence that hatchery fish just aren’t equipped to survive in the wild, such as this recent survey from Oregon State University.

I believe that we lose something vital when we lose our wildlife. I wish the developers saw it the same way.