Saving a System in Peril

ROLE: Steering Committee Member

TIME FRAME: 1998-2000

DELIVERABLE: Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council. 2002. Saving a System in Peril, A special Report on the National Hatchery System. 56 pages.

Report Introduction

For more than a century, the National Fish Hatchery System (NFHS) has played a valuable role in providing cultured fish to benefit Americans. The Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) manages the system, consisting of 66 national fish hatcheries, seven fish technology centers, and nine fish health centers.

Unfortunately, the NFHS has serious problems that have developed over several decades. Funding for hatchery operations and maintenance has declined by about 15 percent since 1992. NFHS facilities are old and outmoded. As a whole, the system suffers from a maintenance backlog of approximately $300 million. Twenty-five percent of hatchery personnel positions are vacant. To a troubling degree, these problems reflect an erosion of congressional and public support.

In March 1999, U.S. Representative George Miller, of the House Committee on Resources, asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct a review to evaluate the NFHS and to gauge the need for changes to refine and clarify the system’s legal mandates. In May 1999, 10 members of Congress requested that the FWS begin a process to determine the role and mission of the NFHS.

In August 1999, the FWS asked the federally chartered Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council (SFBPC) to undertake that review. Following the FWS request, the SFBPC convened a special National Fish Hatchery Project Steering Committee to review the NFHS and develop recommendations regarding the system’s roles, responsibilities and strategic funding policies.

Overall, the steering committee believes the NFHS is uniquely positioned to influence and benefit state and tribal fishery programs, fulfill tribal trust responsibilities, and provide technical assistance to private aquaculture.

Although the intent of the steering committee’s report is to provide recommendations for future management of the NFHS, the steering committee concluded that without a national vision to define regional goals and objectives designed to fulfill overall FWS Fisheries Program strategies, the national hatchery system will continue to drift and will be in peril. It is essential that the FWS move aggressively to ensure that the NFHS and the products it produces fit within a publicly reviewed national strategy developed with state and tribal partners and stakeholders. The FWS must commit to implementing the plan it produces, and the FWS, the administration and Congress must be prepared to fund adequately the activities outlined by this plan.

“Hatcheries are an important tool for natural resource managers when properly selected and used in support of habitat protection and fisheries management. We need to keep this tool sharp, focused and effective.”

Whitney Tilt, Director of Conservation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

Report available on request.