Role of conservation biology in

fish hatcheries

Jesse Way, Simon Woods and Mara Brcic Bello

Outline • Background information and brief history of hatcheries

• Types of hatcheries, differences between them, why we need them

• Issues with hatcheries

• Role of conservation biology

• Looking forward

Hatcheries: why do we need them?

• Fisheries and aquaculture sectors employ ~260 million

people

• ~ $100 billion global trade (McClanahan et al. 2015)

• Fish essential to world food security (McClanahan et al. 2015)

• 17kg /person/year global mean fish consumption (FAO 2014)

Hatcheries: why do we need them?

• Marine harvests have plateaued (McClanahan et al. 2015)

• Collapse of wild fisheries (Pauley et al. 2002)

• Increase in farmed fish consumption of 0.7 to 7.8 kg

per capita between 1970 and 2008 (6.6% annual

increase) (FAO 2014)

Year (FAO 2014)

Ask the audience

• What is your general attitude towards the

concept of hatcheries and their practises?

Positive or negative?

Viewpoints over time

Spencer Baird, 1875 – Recommended fish culture

because he believed it would be the option to reduce

the impacts of habitat change, excessive harvest and

barriers to migration (Williams 2006)

Brown and Day, 2002 - The relatively poor success

rate of reintroduction and environmental issues

generated have led to a fierce debate regarding

hatcheries. (Brown and Day 2002)

Picture extracted from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spen

cer_Fullerton_Baird

Hatcheries • Facility where fish are

hatched and reared under

artificial conditions

• >300 Species are worldwide (Brown and Day 2002)

• Purposes

• Food Supply

• Enhance endangered &

threatened species

• Research

Types of Hatcheries

• Commercial Hatcheries

• Conservation

Hatcheries

Pictures extracted from: http://www.tripadvisor.ca/LocationPhotoDirectLink-

g181717-d155847-i44621927-Capilano_Salmon_Hatchery-

North_Vancouver_British_Columbia.html

History

Started in the 1800s

• Commercial use hatcheries (Sharp 2001)

• Believed to be the answer for all over-harvesting

problems (Sharp 2001)

• 1977 - Canadian Salmonid Enhancement Program

(SEP) started to try and enhance freshwater fish

survival

Salmon Enhancement Program (DFO)

Focused on survival of Coho, Chinook and Chum in BC

Enhancement program includes

• Hatcheries

• Spawning channels

• Semi-natural fish culture structures

• Fishways

• Habitat improvement

• Education of locals

Commercial Hatchery Restocking

• Maximize productivity of

fish production

• Release juvenile fish to

support commercial and

recreational fisheries

from:https://www.bchydro.com/news/conservation/2011/go-fish-bc.html

Monetary Value

Farmed fish have a huge

impact in BC’s economy

Economic Importance

Image extracted from Fish and Ocean Sciences Canada Stats

With success came doubt

• People started wondering the ethics of

having fish in a tank for part (or most) of

their life

• The main concerns were genetic diversity

and fitness depletion

Conservation Hatcheries Reintroduction

• Concern for the genetic

integrity of endangered

species

• Ultimate goal is to maintain

genetic variability and fitness (Fisch et at 2012)

• Added restrictions to maintain

viable populations

seagrant.umn.edu

http://animal-kid.com/jumping-salmon-fish.html

(Flagg and Nash 1999)

c

Restrictions

Conservation hatcheries try to emulate

more natural conditions than commercial

hatcheries

• Feeding systems

• “Semi-natural” environments

• Releasing times

• Gene flow techniques picture extracted from

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/11/09/news/down-east/salmon-

conservation-groups-watching-project-on-east-machias-river/

Restocking VS Reintroduction

Hatcheries Shortfalls

“Because of their large size and strong support from user groups (who rely on

hatcheries to provide fish for commercial, recreational, and tribal harvest as well as

jobs), hatchery programs tend to resist change” (Waples. 1999).

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/

Three Major Shortfalls: 1. Genetics 2. Life Skills 3. Predator experience

Genetic Downer

• Decrease in genetic variability in a variety of salmon

• Incestuous fish! Inbreeding

• Founder effect and genetic drift

www.quickmeme.com

(Cross et al. 1983)

Genetics Rebuff

Genetic Drift Founder Effect

www.beacon_centre_for_evolution.org

Genetics Shortfalls

● Aggressive?! Mixed reviews. (Myres et al. 2004 vs. Olla et al. 1998)

● Poor fecundity (McGinnity et al. 2003)

● Size Matters (Levin et al. 2001)

Hatchery Salmon Arnt Smrt

Cohen 2012 Waples et al. 1999

Hatchery Salmon Are Dumb

www.cartoonstock.com

● Poor spawners!

● Increase in straying

Life History Shortfalls

Six Life behaviour shortfalls of hatchery fish:

1. Predator avoidance

2. Forage and processing food

3. Socially Interaction

4. Nests or shelters construct

5. Locomote on/in a complex terrain

6. Orient and navigate in a complex environment

(Kleiman et al. 1996)

“What is a predator?” Said no wild fish ever.

www.cartoonstock.com

Predators? Never heard of ‘em.

● No exposure to predators

● iPredator. Staggering results!

● 3 predator acclimatization skills

(Olla et al. 1998)

Luckily, some bears have never

heard of fish

Smart + Dumb = Less Smart

● Wild and hatchery salmon hybridize

● Hatchery fish have no natal imprinting

“Overall, Hatcheries fish reduce fitness and

inhibit adaptations of wild populations”

-Myres et al. 2004

Summary of Shortfalls

Hatcheries fish

have:

● Large bodies

● Aggression issues

● Desirable phenotypic traits

(for fisheries)

Hatcheries fish do

not have: ● Essential life skills (foraging, social

skills, nests, navigate complex habitat)

● A clue how to respond to predators or

how to avoid them

● Natal imprinting

● Sound genes (little variance)

Room for Improvement

• Shift priority from husbandry to improving

post-release behaviour survival

• Improve rearing habitats to allow for the

development of more natural behaviours

(Day and Brown 2002; Olla et al. 1994)

Borrowing a page from conservation

reintroduction science

Management techniques to decrease reintroduction mortality

• Environmental enrichment

• Life-skills training

• Hard vs. soft release

(Brown and Day 2002) http://vecto.rs/design/vector-of-a-cartoon-fish-lifting-weights-and-wearing-a-

fish-for-life-shirt-coloring-page-outline-by-ron-leishman-

Environmental enrichment

• Hatcheries devoid of

structure

• Must better resemble

natural environment

(Brown and Day 2002)

Life-skills training

• Alter behavior to prepare for the wild

• Look to terrestrial species for successful

examples

(Shepherdson et al. 1993)

What it takes to survive in the wild

1) Avoid predators

2) Acquire and process food

3) Interact socially with conspecifics

4) Find or construct shelters or nests

5) Move within complex terrain

6) Orientate and navigate in a complex

environment

(Kleiman et al. 1996)

Eat or be eaten: how to survive

• Avoid dangerous microhabitats

and behave cryptically

• Recognize and detect predators

• Antipredator response such as

schooling or fleeing

(Brown and Day 2002)

(Fig. 2 Kellison et al. 2000)

• Time required to become cryptic, wild vs hatchery fish

• Fish pre-exposed to predation have higher rates of survival

(Fig. 2 Olla et al. 1998)

• Even without direct

contact with predators

survival can increase

(Fig. 2 Olla et al. 1998)

Feed as the wild fishes do

• Predator avoidance is key, prey recognition

is too!

• Pre-exposure to live prey and even dead

prey can improve feeding rates upon release

• Skills can be learned quickly (Brown and Day 2002)

Hard vs soft release

• Historical use of hard release

• Greater benefits with soft release

• Acclimatization reduces stress, improves

survival rates

(Brown and Day 2002)

Release site characteristics

• Much known about timing and location of

release

• Little known about interactions with release

site residents

(Leber et al. 1996)

Contradiction in management

• Conservation perspective: must first manage

any threatening processes

• Commercial perspective: threatening

process encouraged

(Brown and Day 2002)

Economic feasibility

• Lack of data on cost effectiveness

• Mixed reviews on rates of success

(Brown and Day 2002)

Looking forward

“Given people’s insatiable appetite for fish, one

must consider how much we are willing to pay

for the continued privilege of catching and

eating wild fish.” (Brown and Day 2002)

Ask the Audience

• What is your general attitude towards the

concept of hatcheries and their practises?

Positive or negative?

Discussion

• Given that hatchery fish lack life skills, why

might they still outcompete wild fish for food

and/or habitat?

• How might hatcheries disguise ecological

issues in an aquatic environment?

More discussion

• In Pauley et al. (2002), Towards

sustainability in world fisheries, fishing is

compared to the hunting of terrestrial

species.

• Is this a fair comparison?

Even more discussion

• Thinking of the previous question, are

hatcheries ethical?

(Is mass producing billions of fish, knowing

nearly 99% will die, a good idea?)

Brown, C., Davidson, T., & Laland, K. 2003. Environmental enrichment and prior experience of live prey improve foraging behaviour

in hatchery‐reared Atlantic salmon. Journal of Fish Biology: 187-196.

Brown, C. and R. Day. 2002. The future of stock enhancement: lessons for hatchery practice from conservation biology. Fish and

Fisheries 3: 79-94

Cross, T. F., and J. King. 2001. Genetic effects of hatchery rearing in Atlantic salmon. Aquaculture 33: 33-40.

FAO. 2014. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture: Opportunities and challenges. Food and Agriculture Organization

Organization of the United Nations

Fisch, K., J. Ivy, R. Burton and B. May. 2012. Evaluating the performance of captive breeding techniques for conservation hatcheries:

A case study of the Delta Smelt captive breeding program. Journal of Heredity Advance Access Nov. 1

Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 2015. Fish Hatcheries in BC

Flagg T. and C. Nash. 1999. A conceptual framework for conservatio hatchery strategies for Pacific Salmonids. US Department of

Commerce : National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Literature Cited

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flounder (Paralichthys dentatus). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 57: 1870-1877.

Kleiman, D.G., B.B. Beck, J.M. Dietz, L.A. Dietz, J.B. Ballou, and A.C. Coimbra-Filho.1986. Conservation program for the golden lion

tamarins: captive rearing and management, ecological studies, education strategies and reintroduction. In: Primates:

the Road to Self-sustaining Populations (ed. K.Benirschke). SpringerVerlag,NewYork, pp.959-979.

Leber, K.M., S. Arce, D.A. Sterritt, and N.P. Brennan. 1996. Marine stock-enhancement potential in nursery habitats of striped mullet,

Mugil cephalus, in Hawaii. Fishery Bulletin 94: 452-471.

Levin, Phillip S., Richard W. Zabel, and John G. Williams. 2001 The road to extinction is paved with good good intentions: negative

association of fish hatcheries with threatened salmon." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B:

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Meffe, G. Techno-Arrogance and Halfway Technologies: Salmon Hatcheries on the Pacific Coast of North America. Conservation

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Literature Cited Myers, Ransom A., Levin, S. A., Lande, R., James, F. C., Murdoch, W. W., & Paine, R. T. 2004. Hatcheries and endangered

salmon. Science 303.5666: 1980.

Olla, B.L. and M.W. Davis. 1989. The role of learning and stress in predator avoidance of hatchery reared coho salmon

(Oncorhynchisk isutch) juveniles. Aquaculture 76: 2091214.

Olla, B.L., M.W. Davis, and C.H. Ryer. 1994. Behavioural deficits in hatchery-reared fished: potential effects on survival following

release. Aquaculture and Fisheries Management 25: 19-34.

Olla, B.L., M.W. Davis, and C.H. Ryer. 1998. Understanding how the hatchery environment represses or promotes the development

of behavioural skills. Bulletin of Marine Science 62: 531-550.

Pauly, D., V. Christenson, S. Guenette, T.J. Pitcher, U.R. Sumaila, C.J. Walters, R. Watson and D. Zeller. 2002. Towards

sustainability in world fisheries. Nature: 478: 689-695.

Sharp, G. 2001. A brief overview of the history of fish culture and its relation to fisheries science.

Literature Cited

Shepherdson, D.J., K. Carlstead, J.D. Mellen, and J. Seidensticker. 1993. The influence of food presentation on the

behaviour of small cats in confined environments. Zoo Biology 12: 203-216.

Waples, R. 1999. Dispelling Some Myths about Hatcheries. Fisheries. 24: 12-21.

Williams, R. 2006. Return to the river, Restoring Salmon to the Columbia River. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-

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