February 13, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries started doing something in 2020 that it had never done before: pay hatcheries to grow juvenile chinook salmon specifically to help feed an endangered population of southern resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest.
Four years later, the agency said the program is producing roughly 20 million fish at 35 different hatcheries every year, providing food for the 75 orcas remaining in the wild.
“It’s the only one I know that’s producing live prey for a predatory species,” said Michael Milstein, a public affairs officer for NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast region.
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