Enhancement and
the Wild Salmon Policy
Carol Cross
Oceans, Habitat and Enhancement Branch
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Outline
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Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP) Overview
Role of Hatcheries
CUs and Enhancement
SEP Revitalization Planning
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Salmonid Enhancement Program Overview
Program began in 1977 – 3 main components
Habitat
Restoration
Public
Involvement
 70+ restoration projects per year with
community, corporate and FN partners
 Lake enrichment, fishways
 Net gain of fish habitat
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Fish Production
 Hatcheries and managed spawning channels
 44 facilities and managed spawning channels
operated by DFO or under contract to first
nations and communities
 Project objectives include rebuilding
populations, sustaining fisheries, marking for
stock assessment
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Public Involvement and Stewardship
Partnering
Education and Awareness (e.g.
Stream to Sea, Salmonids in the
Classroom)
10,000+ volunteers
300 small scale volunteer projects –
including small hatcheries/incubation
projects
Habitat Restoration
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Habitat Restoration
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Public Involvement
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Fish Production
Nadina Spawning Channel
Nitinat Hatchery
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WSP – Definition of Enhanced Salmon
• Salmon are considered wild if they and their parents have
completed their entire life cycle in the wild
• Therefore, salmon that originate from hatcheries and
managed spawning channels are considered enhanced
• Completion of one full generation in the wild is intended to
safeguard against potential adverse effects resulting from
artificial culture
• Fish produced from other SEP components (habitat
restoration, lake enrichment) are considered wild
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Juvenile Releases from Hatcheries and Spawning Channels
Chinook
46.5 M
Chum
127.5 M
Sockeye
277.1 M
Coho
14.7 M
(avg. 2003 - 07)
15.4 M
Pink
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Current Role of Hatcheries/Channels
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Support harvest opportunities
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Coho mass mark selective recreational fisheries
Directed terminal chum net fisheries
Terminal freshwater fisheries - First Nations and recreational
Contribute to ocean fisheries – commercial, recreational
Rebuild depleted or at risk populations
– COSEWIC listed species – Cultus sockeye
– Strategic enhancement in priority CUs - Puntledge summer chinook
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Stock Assessment
– All chinook assessment for the Pacific Salmon Treaty is based on marked enhanced
indicator populations
– Most coho indicators are marked enhanced populations
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Education/stewardship
– Small community hatcheries often focused on education, community awareness
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WSP - Role of Hatcheries
• The WSP recognizes that:
– Enhancement will continue to have a role as a tool to address local or
broader objectives at the watershed or CU scale
– These objectives can range from rebuilding populations to supporting
harvest opportunities but need to be set within planning or recovery
processes for CUs
• The WSP planning process is the key to setting enhancement within
the context of the CU
– The process provides a venue for considering all objectives and options
– Structured planning procedure allows a full assessment of options,
including both the risks and benefits of enhancement.
– Enhancement can have risks but may be the best means of addressing
some CU objectives
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Enhanced Salmon and CUs
• Operationally, SEP enhances at the population level
• A CU is a spatial or geographical grouping of wild salmon - the spatial area
may encompass these enhanced populations
• If a population is enhanced, it does not imply that we are no longer
concerned for its conservation and protection.
• Enhanced populations continue to be part of the genetic composition of the
CU group but are not wild by Policy definition
• Contribution and origin of enhanced salmon within CUs will be tracked as
part of characterizing CUs
• Enhanced salmon in the first generation of return would not be accounted in
any assessment of status or trend
• Very preliminary mapping of hatchery/spawning channel production to CUs
– currently only absolute contribution – not relative to wild production from CU.
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Odd Year Pinks – Total adult production from
hatcheries and spawning channels by CU
- 350000
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Even Year Pinks – Total adult production from hatcheries
and spawning channels by CU
350,000
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Coho – Total adult production from hatcheries and
spawning channels by CU
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Chinook – Total adult production from hatcheries and
spawning channels by CU
50001
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Lake Sockeye – Total adult production from hatcheries and
spawning channels by CU
300000
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Minimizing Impacts of Enhancement in CUs
Genetic
Hatchery genetic management guidelines in use since 1986,
updated as new info becomes available
– Protocols for collecting adults for brood stock and for
spawning -specific to project size and objective
• All movements of fish from one system to another are
reviewed by the Fed/Prov Introductions & Transfers
Committee. Approved movements are licenced and tracked
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Minimizing Impacts of Enhancement in CUs– cont’d
Genetic (cont’d)
When introducing or transferring fish populations
– CU concept does not mean that salmon may be arbitrarily moved from
stream to stream within CUs without biological consideration
– Natal or best matched, locally adapted populations still first choice for
rebuilding
– Generally, no transfers between CUs but will consider on a case by
case basis
Ecological
• release practices to minimize impacts on co-migrating and
freshwater resident species
• Fish Health and Disease management Protocols
– Fish Health guidelines for every facility
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SEP Revitalization - Planning
SEP Revitalization: “a suite of initiatives to be implemented over several
years to help the program adapt to changing operating context, key
challenges and risks”
– review and update of program elements over a number of years
– assess program emphasis and balance activities to make best use of resources and
respond to new demands and changing context
• SEP’s current multiple objectives are still considered valid. However, to
respond to new and emerging trends/priorities (e.g.SARA, WSP priorities)
the emphasis or balance between the objectives may need to be shifted.
• Improvement to the production planning process for enhancement is a
key priority area
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Production Planning and WSP
• SEP production planning will link to WSP planning processes as they
develop
• SEP production planning must consider how to make fish production and
other program decisions within available budget, including:
– Trade-offs between addressing existing programs and new priorities
/demands,
– determining appropriate balance across programs within SEP
– determining balance across objectives – e.g. harvest vs. rebuilding
• SEP is developing decision support tools and will work with stakeholders on
this process
• Barkley Sound WSP integrated planning pilot and work on Skeena will
provide opportunities to test enhancement planning approaches
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Thank you
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