April 3, 2014 — A federal judge has ruled that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife must release only 200,000 coho smolts, and not the 300,000 it had planned, from the Sandy River Hatchery.
Conservation groups have targeted operations at the facility in litigation aimed at reducing hatchery strays on spawning grounds. The groups asked the judge to stop all smolt releases, including Chinook and steelhead, until NOAA Fisheries produces an EIS and a new biological opinion governing the hatchery's operations.
But U.S. District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty ruled March 14 that current releases of Chinook and steelhead smolts are fine. Last March, Haggerty signed an order that said the hatchery could only release 132,000 spring Chinook smolts, after defendants ODFW and National Marine Fisheries Service had offered to cut releases from a planned 200,000 smolts. In previous years, 300,000 spring Chinook smolts were usually released from the facility.
Bill Bakke, science director for the Native Fish Society–one of the plaintiff groups challenging the hatchery operations–said the hatchery will be allowed to release 132,000 Chinook, 160,000 winter steelhead, and 75,000 summer steelhead, along with 200,000 coho.
Read the full story at NW Fishletter