American Sportfishing Association’s Position Statement on Fish Hatcheries Adopted April 2013

The American Sportfishing Association’s has adopted the following positions on fish hatcheries:

• Fish hatcheries continue to play a vital role in fisheries management. Whether it be providing fish for recreational, species restoration, food or the t echnical expertise that lends to improving the efficiency of hatchery operations or improving the actual product of fish, hatcheries remain vital to fishery management and our culture. • Hatcheries must seek to provide the most healthy and genetically acceptable fish possible that supplement wild populations without harm to their vitality. • Hatcheries should continue to be a tool for fish restoration to populations that cannot sustain themselves or recover independently • The federal fish hatchery system must be adequately funded to support its duties as a network that provides both production and technical assistance to state and private hatcheries across the nation • Fish hatcheries provide natural resource education essential to the public understanding of life cycles and the needs of fish and other aquatic life • Hatcheries for food production must operate within state and federal permit processes that do not exacerbate water quality or disease risks for the water and aquatic resources in the hatchery proximity. • Reductions in hatchery production are not a viable strategy for improving the balance between hatchery and wild fish production. Emerging technologies can improve hatchery genetics and in most watersheds there are a host of strategies that can improve the survival of juvenile wild fish. • In many instances hatcheries are absolutely essential to the production of food sources for the general population, for fishing industry jobs, and for recreational opportunities. • Hatchery fish production to meet mitigation commitments is sacrosanct. When dams or other developments were constructed, the law required that the resource losses from these developments be mitigated. In the case of fish losses, most of the mitigation took the form of hatcheries to replace lost wi ld stocks, and they should remain in place as long as the development is in place.

Background

Fish hatcheries in the U.S. date back to the mid-1800s and have played an important role in fisheries management across the country. Hatcheries provide fish for recreational fishing, supplement populations of threatened or endangered fish and produce fish for food. In many regions of the country fishable populations depend on hatchery fish to provide recreational fishing opportunity where it would otherwise not exist or would not exist at a sustainable level.

Hatcheries also have played a key role in the recovery and restoration of fish species in areas where detrimental water quality or other conditions had previously extirpated fish species. They serve as aquatic refugia, centers for basic and applied research, focal points for visitors and aquatic education, and in some regions, represent modern state of the art conservation centers. Some State and federal government hatcheries provide specialized life history stages of numerous species, many of which are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

While the U.S. has long been a world leader in the area of freshwater fish hatcheries, we lag behind other countries in the area of saltwater fish hatcheries. Aquaculture from foreign countries supplies a growing amount of seafood for U.S. consumers. Developing a stronger U.S. aquaculture industry would not only produce more U.S. jobs, but would also help to provide the additional food source that U.S. consumers are increasingly demanding without putting additional pressure on wild stocks that are so important to recreational anglers. With a growing U.S. population, hatcheries, both freshwater and saltwater, are increasingly important to future recreational fishing opportunities.

In the U.S., fish hatcheries are operated by state, federal or private entities for a variety of purposes including food production, fish restoration and to supplement recreational fisheries. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Hatchery System serves numerous and vital core functions for fisheries management. These core components, such as restoration, recovery, conservation genetics and fish health, contribute not only to the Service’s Fisheries Program, but also to state, tribal and compact goals and objectives in aquatic resource conservation. The Service’s hatchery system also serves valuable research and support functions that are used by all other hatchery types – state and private. These essential hatchery components need to be maintained as conservation, social and economic contributions to the nation.

In recent years hatcheries from each of these sectors have been criticized. Claims of genetically inferior fish, water quality problems, disease and non-native species introductions are frequently leveled at hatcheries, often by those with a bias against hatcheries. While it is critical that hatchery operations be operated responsibly, it is imperative that the role fish hatcheries play in fisheries management be properly evaluated in terms of outcomes such as restoration, recovery, mitigation, overall fish population objectives, and angler needs. In most states the operation of hatcheries is licensed by the state to insure compliance with food and or environmental health standards.

Many hatcheries - federal and state hatcheries in particular - are not raising fish for the sake of raising fish, but are doing so to meet specific objectives developed by federal, state, tribal and even private biologists.

In addition, the Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Program (AADAP), officially established in 2003 in Bozeman, Mont., has the goal of obtaining FDA-approved and EPA-compliant new animal drugs for use in federal, state, tribal and private aquaculture programs throughout the United States. The AADAP builds on long-standing partnerships between the Service and over 50 federal, state, tribal and/or private agencies and organizations. AADAP, in its role of obtaining new approved drugs and chemicals for aquatic species, is integral to the Service’s successful stewardship of our natural resources.

The federal Fish Health Center provides state-of-the-art fish disease diagnostic and fish health certification services to national and state fish hatcheries and private fish farms and leads research into understanding Largemouth Bass Virus and its impacts, among other diseases. Triploid grass carp inspections and certification are provided on a reimbursable basis to private fish farmers and for natural resource agencies in the United States and other countries. The federal Fish Technology Center works to improve and enhance fisheries management by providing consolidated technical operational support for NFHS fisheries operations, fish culture technical development, and technical assistance to private aquaculture. It is comprised of a cryopreservation lab, a conservation genetics laboratory, and the National Fish Strain registry.