Thieves Steal Prime Breeding Chinook

Sometimes crimes affect not only people, but the economy and the long-term viability of a species as well. Thieves managed to steal 200 adult spring chinook salmon from the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery on Washington state’s Icicle River last week, forcing the closure of that fishery. “‘That was basically all the spring chinook we had return up to this point,’ said Travis Collier, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife acting hatchery manager in Leavenworth. ‘The early returning portion of the fish are the larger 4- and 5-year olds, and that is roughly 20 percent of the production goal that is now missing.'” The good news is that hatchery managers predict they will still meet their yearly goal of producing 1.625-milllion smolts. Mark Yuasa in The Seattle Times.