SEATTLE, April 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. government plans to count hatchery-bred fish in future decisions on whether stream-bred wild salmon falls under the Endangered Species Act.
This is a major change in the annual $700 million effort to protect Pacific salmon, considered one of the costliest and most complicated attempts to enforce the Endangered Species Act, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
Hatchery-bred fish are pumped by the hundreds of millions each year into West Coast rivers where four of five salmon are from hatcheries.
The move should draw enthusiastic approval from farm, timber and power interests who have long complained about costly government rules designed to protect wild salmon. Hatchery fish can be bred without ecosystem-wide modifications to highways, farms and dams.
Bob Lohn, Northwest regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the new policy probably will help guide decisions this summer by the Bush administration about whether to remove 15 species of salmon from protection as endangered or threatened.
