National Fish Hatcheries

This report is the second of two reports that responded to a request for information to help evaluate the appropriate role for the national fish hatcheries. The report addresses (1) whether the activities carried out at the national fish hatcheries are consistent with their statutory authorizations and (2) whether changes in existing laws would be appropriate to provide better direction to the Fish and Wildlife Service on which programs to emphasize and to authorize the Service to make changes in how it manages the hatcheries. In its review, GAO found that the laws governing national fish hatcheries authorize and direct the hatcheries to engage in a wide variety of activities. These activities include establishing and implementing programs for the protection and conservation of fish, etc. Also, direction on which programs that Congress wants the hatcheries to emphasize would allow the Service to better align hatchery operations with the activities that the Congress believes should be the Service's highest priorities.

GAO noted that: (1) the laws governing national fish hatcheries authorize and direct hatcheries to engage in a wide variety of activities; (2) these activities include: (a) establishing and implementing programs for the protection and conservation of fish, some of which are threatened or endangered; (b) mitigating the impacts of constructing federal dams and other federal water projects; (c) supporting recreational fishing; and (d) supporting fishery resources on FWS or tribal lands; (3) FWS believes that its most important mandate is to recover and restore native aquatic species and ecosystems that are either threatened or endangered; (4) congressional direction on which programs that Congress wants the hatcheries to emphasize would allow FWS to better align hatchery operations with the activities that Congress believes should be FWS' highest priorities; (5) because the laws affecting hatchery operations were enacted over a long period of time and covered a broad range of issues, FWS has been charged with meeting a variety of goals that sometimes conflict or for which the hatcheries are not well located to carry out; (6) FWS finds itself struggling to address the many mandates incrementally added over the years while, at the same time, trying to maintain modern and efficient hatcheries in locations specified by law; (7) furthermore, FWS finds itself operating hatcheries in locations and spending resources to produce types of fish and operate programs that it might not have conducted but for current laws; (8) although FWS' funding has increased by 34 percent in constant dollars since fiscal year 1992, the funding allocated to the hatcheries has declined by about 15 percent in constant dollars in the same period; (9) at the same time, the hatcheries have tried to maintain activities in all program areas but in so doing, have fallen short of production goals or have made compromises affecting fish quality; (10) to obtain additional funding, FWS has sought to obtain reimbursements from the beneficiaries of federal dams and other federal water projects and has succeeded in some cases; and (11) however, FWS is prohibited from obtaining reimbursement or lacks clear authority to do so.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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