Executive Summary
This website describes the illegal systematic destruction of the Pacific Northwest salmonids' habitat (i.e., Oregon, Washington, Idaho, northern California and western Montana) over the past 40 years by federal, state, and Native American agencies. This salmonid habitat is protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973. The habitat destruction was accomplished via the transfer of diseased fish (i.e., Ceratomyxa Shasta (cShasta, Myxobolus cerebralis (whirling disease), Bacterial Kidney Disease (BKD), Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus (IHNV) ) between Pacific Northwest hatcheries and various river subbasins and hatchery-based chemical pollution of the Columbia and Snake River subbasins.

The responsible federal government organizations for the salmonid habitat destruction are the United States Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and US Department of Commerce's National Ocean and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). USFWS is responsible for native trout species while NMFS is responsible for ocean-going fish species.

The Pacific Northwest salmonids consist of the following species:

 

              Common Name         Scientific Name Reference

Pacific salmon usually have an anadromous life cycle. They migrate from the ocean to freshwater, spawn, and, a few months to a few years after hatching, the young migrate to the ocean, where they spend from a few months to several years.

The purpose of U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 was to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved, and to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species. The term ‘‘endangered species’’ means any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range other than a species of the Class Insecta determined by the Secretary to constitute a pest whose protection under the provisions of this Act would present an overwhelming and overriding risk to man. The term ‘‘fish or wildlife’’ means any member of the animal kingdom, including without limitation any mammal, fish, bird (including any migratory, nonmigratory, or endangered bird for which protection is also afforded by treaty or other international agreement), amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod or other invertebrate, and includes any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof.

In 1991, NOAA Fisheries Service received a petition to list Pacific Northwest salmon runs under the ESA. A policy was then developed that established a group of salmon populations to be a distinct population segment if it is an “evolutionarily significant unit,” or ESU. After reviews, there were a total of 26 West Coast salmonid ESUs, with five listed as endangered and twenty one listed as threatened.

NOAA Fisheries Service released its revised draft hatchery listing policy in June 2004. The agency held public meetings and took comments on the draft, and published the final policy in June 2005. The policy followed careful scientific review of both hatchery and naturally spawning fish, and carefully considered the risks and potential benefits of hatcheries to the primary goal of recovering naturally spawning species. The following document contains the listing of "endangered" and "threatened" species within the Pacific Northwest – Endangered Species Act Status of West Coast Salmon & Steelhead.

One must understand the current terminoloy being used to describe the salmonids. A "native" and wild fish are the same. A "natural" is offspring of an unmarked hatchery-reared fish that spawns in the rivers. One must be careful in categorizing the current fish population between native and natural. There seems to be mass confusion in describing the current fish populations in the Pacific Northwest.

Ceratomyxosis is a disease of salmonid fishes caused by the myxosporean Ceratomyxa shasta (Fish Disease Leaflet 80, United States Department of Interior). The parasite has a tropism for the intestinal tissue of the fish and causes high mortalities in susceptible strains of salmonids. The disease was first observed in 1948 in fall spawning rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) from Crystal Lake Hatchery, Shasta County, California (Wales and Wolf 1955). The etiological agent was established as a new species by Noble (1950), who described C. shasta as the first species of Ceratomyxa to parasitize freshwater fish and the only member that is histozoic. Other species of Ceratomyxa that occur in marine fishes parasitize the lumen of the gall bladder and urinary bladder. There is no known cure for the Ceratomyxa shasta disease!

Ceratomyxa shasta (C. shasta) is an important parasite in the Pacific Northwest because it causes losses in hatchery-reared and wild juvenile salmonids. It also contributes significantly to prespawning mortality in adult salmon.

C. shasta was first discovered in juvenile Coho salmon at Bonneville Dam in 1960. C. shasta was also discovered in juvenile steelhead and chinook salmon in the Deschutes River subbasin in the mid-60's. In 1973 and 1974, infection frequencies were high (47% to 77%) in all groups of juvenile spring chinook salmon Oncorthy tshawytscha exposed to C. shasta in water from the Deshutes River.

Several hatcheries were also infected with C. shasta at the same time. The Klamath trout hatchery at Chiloquin was infected with C. shasta and affected the Rainbow Trout (stock 127) population that was later transported to Oak Springs and Wizard Falls hatcheries. The Klamath trout stock were also distributed in Crane Prairie and Wickiup reservoirs, the headwaters for the Deschutes River.

Between 1966 and 1975, the State of Oregon released over one million juvenile steelhead from coastal rivers into the Willamette River Basin. During this period, only one release of juvenile steelhead was marked and evaluated for adult returns—no adults were ever observed from that group. It wasn’t until 1982 that published research gave a reason for the lack of adult returns. The Willamette watershed contains a parasite, Ceratomyxa shasta, which is absent in most coastal watersheds. Research showed that steelhead from a coastal river were highly susceptible to the parasite whereas stocks from the Columbia Basin, of which the Willamette is a part, were resistant to the parasite. Stocking of steelhead from coastal streams was a futile exercise because the attributes of the ecosystem were not considered.

Poor survival of hatchery fish that are highly susceptible to a disease or parasite in the watershed they are released into is a major problem. However, it is not the only problem that can result from a lack of an ecosystem perspective. Some of the hatchery fish may survive even though they are highly susceptible to a parasite or disease. If they survive to the adult stage and return to the river and spawn with the native population, the result can be a lowering of the resistance of the native fish to the pathogen (Hemmingsen, et al. 1986). This appears to be what happened to coho salmon in Fishhaw Creek in the Nehalem River. The Trask River hatchery stock of coho salmon, which is susceptible to Ceratomyxa shasta were planted into Fishhawk Creek for 12 years (1965 to 1976). Ceratomyxa shasta is found in the Nehalem River and the native stock is resistant to it. Apparently some of the Task River stock of coho survived and returned to Fishhawk Creek where they spawned with wild fish. Research conducted in 1980 showed that the Fishhawk Creek coho salmon had reduced resistance to Ceratomyxa shasta compared to native coho in other parts of the Nehalem River where Trask River coho were not stocked (Wade 1986).

The presence of C. shasta was also detected at Little Goose Dam on the Snake River in 1984. Within one year, the prevalance of C. shasta increased from 1.1% to 10% at Little Goose Dam (1985). Coley et al. (1983) also reported that 94% of adult spring chinook salmon at Rapid River Hatchery, Idaho, were infected with C. shasta.
Various methods are used to try and eliminate C. shasta within the infected watersheds. The use of strong chemicals and ultraviolet light did not completely cure the disease and polluted the effluent water that spilled into the waterways. In one particular incident that dumped an illegal dosage of chemicals into the watershed, a former Lookingglass fish hatchery manager was quoted as "The solution to pollution is dilution".

The Lookingglass hatchery also polluted the local environment using undocumented methods and illegal operations. These included illegal dumping of chemicals on private and public properties, burial of fish carcasses on private land, and flushing of settling pond sediment into the creek. This will be presented in detail in the Lookingglass Hatchery section.

When the Independent Hatchery Operations Team (IHOT) audited Lookingglass in 1996, no data was provided to the review team regarding chemistry, contaminants, turbidity, nitrites, and alkalinity. (Lookingglass Hatchery – Spring Chinook, Grande Ronde Stock, An Independent Audit Based on Integrated Hatchery Operations Team (IHOT) Performance Measures) . It appears the required documentation did not exist or was withheld. Review of other IHOT hatchery audit reports revealed the same issues and problems. One wonders if the hatcheries do not want their internal operations known or are covering up illegal activities. Also, how long have these illegal activities been conducted (i.e., 10 years, 20 years, 30 years)?