Hatcheries and Endangered Salmon

摘要: Conservation hatcheries are unproven in restoring threatened and endangered populations of salmon to sustainable levels, may cause more harm than good. Nonetheless, a recent court decision found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) must include hatchery Endangered Species Act listings, where NMFS has included those fish as components core "evolutionarily significant units (ESUs)." This undercuts efforts for restoration wild salmon. The authors this Policy Forum, therefore, urge use legally defensible definition an ESU; artificially propagated individuals should not be ESUs, even if they indistinguishable at indicator genetic loci. Hatcheries generally reduce current fitness inhibit future adaptation natural populations. Hence, legal ESU unambiguous exclude fish.