Symposium Summary: Managing Challenges and Conflicts with the Wise Use of Fish Hatcheries and Traditional Production Objectives

Sponsor: Fish Culture Section This symposium, sponsored by the Fish Culture Section, included 25 presentations discussing ways fish hatcheries are improving or advancing their fish culture practices to meet ever more diverse, stringent, and complicated goals for the fish they produce. Hatchery-reared fish have traditionally been used to supplement sport fish populations and produce food, but now are used for a wide variety of objectives including restoration of endangered or threatened species, changing allele frequencies in populations, stocking of sterile fish that do not reproduce, etc. Presentations included how to work with industry and extension offices to identify and resolve problems; how hatcheries have improved operations over time to address rates of return, genetics, and fitness; and a presentation by the Nez Pierce tribe about how a program to restore a nearly extirpated salmon run was implemented with the help of hatchery operations. The need for cooperation among hatcheries, regulators, fisheries managers, and other disciplines was evident. The symposium was well attended (with up to 45 attendees in the room at a time) and generated excellent discussion throughout. An added highlight was the pre-symposium dinner held at the Newport Seafood Grill on Tuesday night. About 20 participants and friends got to know each other better over dinner. This social interaction led to a more integrated symposium with more audience interaction during the question-and-answer opportunities.   — Carl Kittel, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, [email protected] Read the symposium abstracts here.