How farm-raised fish harm the wild ones

LAKEVILLE — “Artifishal,” a film produced by the Patagonia outdoor outfitting company, was shown at Indian Mountain School on Friday evening, May 31. About a dozen people attended.

The film offers a bleak look at the effects of fish farms and stocking programs on river systems and fish populations — specifically salmon on the West Coast.

Several experts in the film say that fish and wildlife programs take an expensive, inefficient and ultimately counterproductive approach to stocking fish.

The speakers are from diverse backgrounds: Native Americans, fishing guides, hatchery employees, scientists.

The gist is that when hatchery fish are introduced to a river system, they compete with wild fish for food. Their inferior genetics get combined with that of wild fish, further weakening the latter.

Open pen salmon farms come in for heavy criticism, with footage of diseased and crippled fish in cramped conditions.

The film brings in Richard Vincent, a scientist who worked for the Montana fish and game department in the 1970s.

Vincent theorized that the introduction of hatchery fish was responsible for the decline in overall trout fishing in the state.

And he offered proof.

In 1974 the state stopped stocking the best waters and the wild fish population doubled.

“We didn’t know we were doing damage,” Vincent says in the film.

Montana today justly enjoys the reputation of having the best trout fishing in the lower 48.

(For more information on Vincent see “Why Montana Went Wild” at Montana Outdoors, the magazine of Montana  Fish, Wildlife and Parks.)

Tom Stewart, assistant head of school for program and daily operations, welcomed the audience and said the school plans to do more similar community events.