A hatchery worker in the early 1980s.
Many biologists say salmon produced in hatcheries have contributed to the loss of wild salmon.
Others argue that hateries, managed differently, can play a role in the recovery of wild salmon. By Teresa Novak Young salmon are deceptively easy to produce artificially. Cannery operators built the first hatcheries in Oregon in the late 1870s, on the Clackamas and Rogue rivers. Their goal was to increase salmon runs by artificially combining salmon genetic material to create baby salmon fry, and then releasing the juvenile smolts to join wild young salmon swimming seaward from their upstream spawning grounds. Today, more than 70 percent of Oregon's salmon start life not in streams but in a fish hatchery.