Dewatto River Steelhead Recovery

Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, steelhead in Hood Canal's Dewatto River may have a chance. With numbers plummeting over the last decade, twelve agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have joined together to breed captive native steelhead from the Dewatto River. They reared them at the Lilliwaup Hatchery and released last May. Identical programs are underway on other Hood Canal rivers such as the South Fork Skokomish and Duckabush Rivers. With luck, mother nature and the help of the agencies involved, these juvenile steelhead may help the small self sustaining population that remain and help steelhead return to the Kitsap Peninsula. Read more courtesy of the Kitsap Sun.

Warning, this post may offend some of you who have read the Arati article, The Genetic Effects of Captive Breeding Cause A Rapid, Cumulative Fitness Decline in the Wild. My only stance on this is it should only be done when it is absolutely necessary.