Correct! You’re right on. Hatcheries are a bandaid, not a longterm solution.
Many hatcheries see decreasing returns yearly. Meaning, every year, less adult salmon are returning for spawn than the previous year. We can give them the best start possible, but salmon face a lot of issues after release.
Hatcheries also don’t meet all of the functions of the salmon lifecycle. Most salmon are anadromous, meaning they live part of their lives in freshwater and part in salt. They lay their eggs in freshwater, the eggs hatch, and the salmon move out to sea, returning later to spawn.
This is a vital nutrient exchange. When salmon return from the ocean to lay their eggs, they then die and decompose miles and miles upstream, and they introduce nutrients to that ecosystem that otherwise wouldn’t be available. The Tongass rainforest in Alaska and Canada, as well as ecosystems all the way down to California, rely on this lifecycle.
But dams have blocked salmon from their historical spawning habitats, and ecosystems along the entire North American coast are starving for nutrients. Not to forget the many animals and humans that used to rely on salmon upstream for food and other resources.
Hatcheries can’t exactly dump hundreds of thousands of dead salmon up and down rivers to mitigate this.
This is just one issue! I worked with an Orca population that relies on salmon as a food source, as another example, and decreasing prey is a major risk to their existence. We predict that in the coming decades, increased snowmelt caused by warming temperatures will make traditionally calm streams too turbulent and sedimented for young salmon to survive, as another example of an issue they’re facing.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Indigenous justice goes hand-in-hand with environmental justice.
Just this year, the Puyallup Tribe won a lawsuit which will allow them to remove a dam in Washington, which will restore vital habitat to Chinook/King salmon. This is a monumental victory, and we need to see more like it. I support Indigenous sovereignty & justice whether or not it directly affects environmental protections, of course, but it almost always does. In my work, especially on the West Coast in the U.S. & Canada, following Indigenous leads is crucial to habitat protection & restoration.
People would be surprised how many dams are actually downright unnecessary and how beneficial it would be to remove them. Like you said, protecting riparian habitat (meaning habitat close to water, for those who don’t know), and curbing global warming is also vital.
We have an uphill battle to fight, but it’s worth every step, and there have been victories, and there will be more!
