State loses contract to operate two fish hatcheries after report of sexual culture

[Larry3215]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/poli ... 17292.html

[dj2loud]

Watch and see if they decide it's not a viable option to keep it open even after renovations... I truly like the resoning, vobbert did not delve into specifics about what problems the PUD had with Fish and Wildlife but noted officials believed the state had “issues” and the district felt safer using its own employees when trying to meet federal regulations. The hatcheries, which raise salmon, steelhead and other fish, are part of the broader Wells Dam, which is licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“By having our own staff at our own facilities, that puts that in our hands,” she said.

Watch them both close or be given to the tribes......

[Bay wolf]

Thank you Larry for posting this. It is truly unfortunate that even other gov't agencies can see how incompetent WDFW is in running our hatcheries. This is most unfortunate, since the momentum gained will be to eliminate even more hatcheries, or turn them over to the tribes.

[Juniah87]

As a former fish hatchery specialist for DFW, I feel it's very important that the public know that hatcheries are not being run the way the hatchery managers WANT to run the hatcheries. The hatchery managers are very burdened, and hamstrung by the folks that budget and run the DFW. Make sure we are placing the blame on the people that deserve it, the hatchery managers, at least the 5 or 6 I have personally worked with, have been incredible, smart, and great fish culturists. But budget cuts and people being promoted that know very little if anything about actual fish culture has made this resource almost impossible to maintain. The last hatchery I worked at had a line graph on the entrance to the hatchery building that showed the amount of salmon we were budgeted for (based on budget available for feed) over the course of the last 15 or so years, and it literally looked like a 45 degree angle line. They went from 4 full-time employees to 2. I was the third full-time employee, but I was only there during spawning season, the rest of the year I was helping other hatcheries with their spawning, or helping with maintenance and planting of trout. If I remember correctly, the numbers were something like 1.4 million chinook the year I left, back 10 or 15 years ago, they were in the 5-7 million range I think, but don't quote me on that, it's been over 5 years since I've been there.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure the hard working hatchery managers weren't the ones taking all the hate for the way DFW is handling this.

Just ran back and read the article as well. While working for the DFW I became pretty good friends with the union rep for hatchery specialists in region 6. I remember talking to her about the management at Wells. She said the place was run like it was the 70's. Managers had hard alcohol hidden in their desks, and they'd constantly haze new employees. From making them work extremely long hours, to having them stay in rat and mold-infested trailers when fish were on station because the job required you be no more than 10 minutes from the hatchery in case of emergency, and did not provide housing as part of the contract. I didn't realize anything had come of it! Very interesting! Another side note, Methow Hatchery was the second hatchery I applied to fresh out of college. I nailed the interview, and scored perfectly on the interview exam, but still didn't get the job. Must have been someone who had worked with the department already applying for the position. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't get that one!

[TrackerPro16]

Thanks!