Fishing News
Hatchery Fish Learn Traits that Wild Salmon Adopt
SEATTLE, Washington, June 7, 2026 (ENS) - Releasing hatchery raised salmon may do endangered Pacific salmon populations more harm than good.
Many salmon recovery plans include supplementing the wild population with hatchery raised fish. But new research confirms that hatchery salmon can adapt to captivity and transfer these traits to wild populations.
Compared to wild fish, hatchery coho salmon do not compete as well for mates, and hatchery steelhead are not as good at avoiding predators.
"As the population adapts to the hatchery, its survival rate in the wild goes down," said Michael Ford of the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington. Ford presents his research in the June issue of the journal "Conservation Biology."
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