Angling stakeholders formed the Clutha/Mata-Au Sportsfish and Habitat Trust in March last year to support Contact Energy in meeting its consent conditions for the Roxburgh Dam, to commission a sports fisheries mitigation programme.
Prior to the formation of the trust, Fish & Game worked with Contact on restoring salmon stocks to the Clutha River below Roxburgh Dam.
Salmon are now scarce in the lower Clutha, despite being abundant during the 1940s and 1950s, before the dam was built in 1956.
The trust is conducting population and other research, and aims to return 5000 adult salmon to the lower Clutha, while improving sports fish habitat in the lower river and tributaries.
On Tuesday, a Cawthron Institute report confirmed building a hatchery to rear and release juvenile salmon was the best way to restore sea-run salmon and enhance the sports fishery.
Trust chairman Rick Boyd said the trust had also received a statutory assessment of approvals and consents required for a hatchery.
The assessment highlighted processes for meaningful consultation with mana whenua, consenting agencies and the local community.
"This is an important milestone," Mr Boyd said.
"The wild sea-run Chinook salmon fishery in the lower Clutha River is ‘functionally extinct’ and has shown no sign of recovery in recent decades.
"The science indicates that a hatchery offers the most effective way to meet our core purposes. But we know this is only the beginning — we need to understand the process clearly and move forward carefully."
Mr Boyd said the hope was to create a put-and-take fishery where hatchery-raised juvenile salmon were released into the river below the Roxburgh Dam and eventually returned from sea as adult fish for anglers to catch.
Broodstock could be sourced from landlocked Chinook from lakes Wānaka and Hāwea, and from residual sea-run fish below the Roxburgh Dam and from the Pomahaka River.
Mr Boyd said developing a hatchery would require engagement that took account of cultural values, including the perspectives of mana whenua.
"Salmon are a valued sports fish in the Clutha, but we also recognise they are a non-native species. It’s essential that we engage with mana whenua and the wider community, and understand their views as part of this effort."
Before the dam, the Clutha had an estimated annual spawning run of about 20,000 salmon.
After it was built, numbers dropped to a few thousand and recently to only a few hundred.
A date for consultation was yet to be confirmed.
