Review of Potential Impacts of Atlantic Salmon Culture on Puget Sound Chinook Salmon and Hood Canal Summer-Run Chum Salmon Evolutionarily Significant Units

摘要

This document examines the potential of Atlantic salmon farming in Puget Sound to impose adverse impacts on the Puget Sound chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon (O. keta) evolutionarily significant units (ESUs), both of which were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in March 1999. The threatened status of these populations requires that all activities that may harm the fish or their critical habitat be limited such that they do not appreciably reduce the likelihood for recovery of the ESUs in the wild. Many of the activities that may lead to the take of listed salmon in Puget Sound, including the artificial propagation of salmonids in hatcheries and marine enclosures, will have effects that are incidental to otherwise lawful activities. Among such activities is the private culture of Atlantic salmon. This document presents the best scientific and commercial information available to evaluate the possible effects of salmon farming on listed chinook and summer-run chum salmon populations, and will provide the scientific basis for federal regulatory agency direction for the appropriate management of the industry in Puget Sound.