December 3, 2025 — Two conservation groups are suing the federal government over Mitchell Act hatchery operations below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, which they claim are contributing to the decline of wild salmon populations.
“If we want more wild fish returning to their home rivers, we need a broader, ongoing conversation about how hatchery production drives harvest in the ocean,” Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) Executive Director Emma Helverson said in a release. “Flooding the ocean with hatchery salmon creates the illusion of abundance that increases harvest pressure on our most imperiled salmon populations – the fish we can least afford to lose. Meanwhile, under today’s ocean-harvest frameworks like the Pacific Salmon Treaty, more fish in the ocean simply results in more fish being harvested. We cannot recover these species without breaking this cycle.”