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<h1><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:black'>Hatchery Fish May Hurt Efforts To Sustain Wild Salmon Runs</span><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p><b><i><span style='color:black'>ScienceDaily </span></i></b><span
style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>June 10, 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/06/090610091224-large.jpg"><b><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=300 height=226
id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C9ECE6.399E03E0"></span></b></a><em><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";font-style:normal'>Steelhead
trout return to spawn.</span></b></em><em><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> (Credit: John McMillan)</span></b></em><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>Steelhead trout that are originally bred in
hatcheries are so genetically impaired that, even if they survive and reproduce
in the wild, their offspring will also be significantly less successful at
reproducing, according to a new study published today by researchers from
Oregon State University.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>The poor reproductive fitness - the ability to
survive and reproduce - of the wild-born offspring of hatchery fish means that
adding hatchery fish to wild populations may ultimately be hurting efforts to
sustain those wild runs, scientists said.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>The study found that a fish born in the wild as
the offspring of two hatchery-reared steelhead averaged only 37 percent the
reproductive fitness of a fish with two wild parents, and 87 percent the
fitness if one parent was wild and one was from a hatchery. Most importantly,
these differences were still detectable after a full generation of natural
selection in the wild.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>The effect of hatcheries on reproductive fitness
in succeeding generations had been predicted in theory, experts say, but until
now had never been demonstrated in actual field experiments.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>"If anyone ever had any doubts about the
genetic differences between hatchery and wild fish, the data are now pretty
clear," said Michael Blouin, an OSU professor of zoology. "The effect
is so strong that it carries over into the first wild-born generation. Even if
fish are born in the wild and survive to reproduce, those adults that had
hatchery parents still produce substantially fewer surviving offspring than
those with wild parents. That's pretty remarkable."</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>An earlier report, published in 2007 in the
journal Science, had already shown that hatchery fish that migrate to the ocean
and return to spawn leave far fewer offspring than their wild relatives. The
newest findings suggest the problem does not end there, but carries over into
their wild-born descendants.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>The implication, Blouin said, is that hatchery
salmonids - many of which do survive to reproduce in the wild- could be
gradually reducing the fitness of the wild populations with which they
interbreed. Those hatchery fish provide one more hurdle to overcome in the goal
of sustaining wild runs, along with problems caused by dams, loss or
degradation of habitat, pollution, overfishing and other causes.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>Aside from weakening the wild gene pool, the
release of captive-bred fish also raises the risk of introducing diseases and
increasing competition for limited resources, the report noted.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>This research, which was just published in Biology
Letters, was supported by grants from the Bonneville Power Administration and
the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. It was based on years of genetic
analysis of thousands of steelhead trout in Oregon's Hood River, in field work
dating back to 1991. Scientists have been able to genetically
"fingerprint" three generations of returning fish to determine who
their parents were, and whether or not they were wild or hatchery fish.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>The underlying problem, experts say, is Darwinian
natural selection.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>Fish that do well in the safe, quiet world of the
hatcheries are selected to be different than those that do well in a much more
hostile and predatory real-world environment. Using wild fish as brood stock
each year should lessen the problem, but it was just that type of hatchery fish
that were used in the Hood River study. This demonstrates that even a single
generation of hatchery culture can still have strong effects.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>Although this study was done with steelhead trout,
it would be reasonable to extrapolate its results to other salmonids,
researchers said. It's less clear what the findings mean to the many other
species that are now being bred in captivity in efforts to help wild
populations recover, Blouin said, but it's possible that similar effects could
be found.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>Captive breeding is now a cornerstone of recovery
efforts by conservation programs for many threatened or endangered species, the
researchers noted in their report. Thousands of species may require captive
breeding to prevent their extinction in the next 200 years - which makes it
particularly important to find out if such programs will ultimately work. This
study raises doubts.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>"The message should be clear," the
researchers wrote in their report's conclusion. "Captive breeding for
reintroduction or supplementation can have a serious, long-term downside in
some taxa, and so should not be considered as a panacea for the recovery of all
endangered populations." </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
font-weight:normal'>###<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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