Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project

By Morrow Whitcomb, Past Chairman of the Board

Al Smith and Larry Wolf asked me to write an article describing changes in the Project over the years.  Much has changed in the Project since I joined in 1985.

The Projectâs original purpose was the restoration of traditional numbers of salmonids to the streams of the greater Monterey Bay area; the mitigation of environmental impacts such as droughts; and the supplementation of natural production to produce a surplus of returning adults for recreational fishing.

In the mid- â80s and early â90s the Projectâs hatchery production peaked at over 175,000 steelhead and 35,000 Coho salmon smolts per year.  Smolts were planted in just about every stream from Waddell Creek in the north to the Carmel River in the south.  The Project had just started its salt water net pen Chinook program (which this year released 192,000 fingerlings) and the Salmon and Trout Education Program (STEP) was well underway as well.  Several important scientific studies were performed with the DF & G.  The Project operated the hatchery and rearing facility at Big Creek, and five additional rearing facilities.  The Project had the capability of producing over 300,000 steelhead and Cohos, and volunteers provided 15,000 man-hours per year to the Project.

From the earliest days, the Project used hatchery practices developed to avoid mistakes made at state and federal facilities.  Wild broodstock and other techniques were used to maintain wild genetics, and to avoid developing domestic strains of fish.

The Projectâs impact on returns of anadromous fish was profound.  45 to 65 percent of adults returning to spawn on the SLR were of hatchery origin (from wild parents).  Hatchery plants even restarted extirpated runs on some streams, and returning hatchery fish contributed heavily to the in-stream production of juveniles.

Today, the Projectâs inventory is 37,000 SLR-origin and 7,000 Scott Creek-origin steelhead, and it operates the Big Creek hatchery, and two other rearing facilities with occupancy well below capacity.  So what caused this dramatic decrease in production?

The major cause of this reduction is the extensive changes in the regulatory environment.  When the Cohos were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species act, and steelhead listed as threatened, everything unraveled.  Regulators placed extreme limits on our production, stopped our planting smolts into streams from which their parents didnât come, and increased restrictions on the recreational fishery.

The regulatorsâ concern is that the fish are protected and shouldnât be disturbed by anybody (hatcheries or recreational fishers).  Hatchery supplementation is largely forbidden because they feel hatchery fish are inferior.  And they fear planting fish originating from one stream into another will damage the genetic structure of the other stream to that runâs disadvantage.  They ignore scientific studies which show extensive straying between Scott and Waddell Creeks.  They ignore the obvious free intermingling of San Lorenzo River, Soquel and Aptos fish stocks, and the fact that some genetic material transfer between nearby streams is beneficial, widening the gene pool and helping prevent inbreeding and resultant narrow gene pools.  And they ignore that our hatchery fish come directly from wild parents.  The regulators have an idealistic, totally wild-fish approach, wanting only naturally produced and reared fish in the system. 

The fact that steelhead and salmon returns from the Great Lakes average 10% to 15%, all hatchery fish, and our ocean returns of hatchery and stream bred fish are lucky to exceed 1/2%, conclusively shows that the ocean is the problem, not the hatchery or recreational fishing.  The recreational fishery, and the hatchery are easy targets to hit, however.  A more astute, but infinitely more difficult decision would be to reduce the number of predators, themselves neither threatened nor endangered, but fully protected to prey on the endangered fish.

The regulators approach has significantly reduced the numbers of fish that the Project rears, lowered the numbers of adult fish returning to spawn, and damaged the Projectâs volunteer base.  Volunteers used to come from a variety of sources, but the largest by far was the pool of recreational fishers.  Skilled fishers who grew up on our local streams, schooled in years of direct observation, with a strong and abiding interest in fish and fish culture.  Now with fishing opportunities disappearing, so has our volunteer base of recreational fishers.  With several of our key Board members burned out (from the regulatory and bureaucratic wars) added to the death of several of our dear friends and key Project leaders, and the loss of several others who have moved away (to places with better fishing, where else?!), the result is we have a huge volunteer problem.  The group of volunteers willing to take care of the fish at the hatchery on a Saturday or Sunday is so severely depleted that the Board has even discussed using some of its precious budget to hire weekend workers.

Curiously this regulatory and volunteer situation comes at a time when the Project finances are in the best shape Iâve ever seen.  During the early â90s, State funding programs encouraging cooperative rearing ended, and the Project's state funding disappeared.  The Project was in such dire straits that a key volunteer put up personal investments as collateral for a bank loan to tide the Project over.  Now the addition of key members such as Larry Wolf, skilled in fund-raising, combined with the outstanding support of long time major funding organizations has put the Project in decent financial condition

So where are we going from here?  I'm afraid that the Project will never be allowed to supplement the steelhead fishery enough to support catch and kill, nor to increase the total number of spawners significantly over natural production.  The best we can hope for is to be allowed a catch and release fishery with enough hatchery supplementation to make up for the associated incidental mortality, and to mitigate droughts, etc.  Populations of naturally reproducing fish will continue to decline, because of the lack of wild-origin hatchery fish returning to spawn, and because ocean problems and predators will never be addressed.  And so we will continue to have reduced opportunities to catch a steelhead in local waters.  What we have worked so long to prevent is coming to pass, and largely due to misapplication of regulations intended to help the fish.

On that note, however, I am cautiously optimistic for the survival of the fish and the future of the Project.  The scientists will finally come to the conclusion that the fish populations of adjacent streams share common gene pools, and some inter-basin transfer of fish will be allowed.  The genetic makeup of our hatchery fish is being recognized as identical to the wild fish.  And thus we will continue to play an important role in the survival of the local anadromous fish populations. 

A final plea.  Please become an active and committed volunteer.  The Project has space and work for practically every talent.  From construction to weekend fish rearing, from working on the Board of Directors to assisting with the STEP program, the need is for volunteers is critical.  Without additional volunteers the Project will cease to exist in relatively short order.

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