A half million fish is a huge discrepancy at any hatchery, even one the size of Cowlitz. Nonetheless, losses happen at hatcheries, no matter how many alarm systems, redundant back up systems, etc. The number of ways things can go wrong at a hatchery - and it looks like WDFW may have found or invented yet another - I'm sometimes surprised when things go especially well.
Just as I posted in another thread that commercial and tribal commercial fishermen are not entitled to disaster compensation for a poor salmon season, because runsizes naturally vary from high to low, neither are the commercial and recreational fishermen who fish for and catch Cowlitz origin fish entitled to the same level of abundance every year. Cowlitz runs have had down years before due to above average losses of juveniles, just not as large as the loss of last spring.
Sg
Sorry, Sg, but I have to disagree strongly on this negligence by WDFW and Tacoma Power. I am not a hard-core Tacoma Power / WDFW basher but this has me pissed because it should have been entirely preventable. This is not "an act of god", not a natural disaster. This is pure incompetence. Tacoma Power has a license to operate their hydroelectric dams from FERC. As you know better than me, as a condition for that license, they agree to provide mitigation for the negative impacts of their operations on fish populations. Tacoma Power appears to be in violation of its license. [Yeah, I know, the fact that they STILL haven't figured out a way (or be willing to pay enough) to transport juveniles and adults around the dams after many decades should be considered an even bigger violation of their license. But let's not pick at old sores and instead focus on this fresh one.] Tacoma Power contracts with WDFW to raise and release these fish for mitigation purposes. At an extreme, insufficient mitigation should equal of ability to generate power (yeah, I know, never gonna happen).
If one of my students gave the the litany of lame-ass excuses for this fubar, I would fail their ass. This isn't their first rodeo and this screw-up screams of poor operations and especially poor oversight and management. And Tacoma Power's nose is right it the &%& too as it is their license to operate that is at stake.
Natural disasters, such as the warm-water blob, I can understand; searun fishing has sucked for the last two falls as a result. But this is simple incompetence. Fully (and publicly) investigate this screw-up. If found lacking, remove the supervisors, institute new policies, buy modern equipment now (not in "3-6 years").
Steve
