Fish Hatchery
When a salmon reared at the Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery in Oregon is caught, fishermen will be able to distinguish it from a wild chinook by the absence of a tiny fin.
More than 350 volunteers turned out for the hatchery’s annual fin-clipping day, teaming up to snip about 100,000 young salmon. The hatchery raises 200,000 salmon a year and places them in the Wilson and Trask rivers.
It is important that hatchery fish are marked if they are introduced into rivers, so fishermen can keep them and throw back the wild ones. Hatchery fish can be a problem because they compete with wild fish for food and may interbreed with them, possibly creating genetically inferior offspring.
April 18, 2007 6:49 AM | Category: Fish