WDFW Releases White Paper on Proposal to Increase Hatchery Chinook Production to Increase Prey Abundance for ORCA

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued a white paper on their proposal to increase Southern Resident Killer Whale prey availability through a selective process of increase hatchery production of Chinook salmon. 

“The proposal calls for 30 million additional smolts to be released in carefully selected Puget Sound areas and 20 million in similarly strategic Columbia River areas, accomplished in a manner that may be compliant with Endangered Species Act (ESA) implementation for both threatened and endangered Chinook salmon populations and endangered SRKWs.”