Artificial Production Review and Evaluation (APRE)

Overview of APRE

Over the past several years, independent scientific reviews of Columbia River hatcheries have uniformly concluded that change is needed. The purpose of many artificial programs in the basin is currently unclear. While many artificial production programs were built to mitigate the impact of dams or to produce fish for harvest, their role today is less clear. There also is great concern about whether or not artificially produced fish adversely affect naturally spawning populations of fish.

To address these issues, Congress directed the Council to conduct a review of artificial production in the Columbia River Basin. The Council completed the first phase of the Congressionally-mandated review by producing the Artificial Production Review, a report that outlined recommendations to reform hatchery practices. The next phase of the review is the Artificial Production Review and Evaluation or APRE. It is intended that the APRE will include a review of all artificial production facilities and programs in the Columbia River Basin — more than 300 programs of anadromous and resident fish programs involving about 130 facilities.

Process

The APRE/HGMP reports are automatically generated based on data collected in a series of province-wide workshops with harvest and hatchery managers as well as interviews with hatchery operators. In fall of 2002, workshops for each province took place where a list of stocks for each subbasin was developed and a series of questions pertaining to the status and goals of each stock were addressed. Following these workshops, interviews at individual hatcheries were conducted to gather information about facilities and operations associated with each hatchery stock.

Background materials

• Overview
• Deliverables
• Diagram of combined APRE and HGMP processes
• APRE and subbasin planning

APRE completion schedule