Larry B mentioned my files

First, let me be clear that I support the idea of self-sustaining, natural origin spawners. How or if we'll ever get there is the problem. From a WDFW power point, the following observation is telling.....

Observation 1: Roughly 90% of the total run for Puget Sound Chinook is now from late-run populations dominated by hatchery production

Do we truly have a preponderance of the "wild" fish genetics we're spending billions of dollars trying to recover?

Between 1953 and 1987, the WDF et al released over 4 billion salmon into state waters with over 600 streams listed in the 1952-73 stocking records.

The WDF/WDFW have been moving fishing out of basin for over 100 years. They've done fry, fingerling, and yearling plants into waters within driving distance of most hatcheries and many of those fish went out of basin.

From 1980 to 1987, WDF transferred 277 million Chinook eggs out of basin. Puget Sound saw 179.8+ million eggs moved; the Columbia River hatcheries moved 75.1+ million eggs, and the Coastal rivers saw 18.7+ million eggs moved. What kind of transfers occurred pre-1980 and post-1987. We know that eggs are still being moved around - where did the backfill eggs for Minter Creek come from after the equipment failure last year?

The Green River is the poster child for the Puget Sound movement of eggs out of basin. Between 1980 and 1987, over 40 million Green River Chinook eggs were transferred to Chambers Creek, Coulter Creek, Deschutes River, McAllister Creek, Minter Creek, Nisqually River, Nooksack River, Puyallup River, Samish River, Skagit River, Skokomish River, and the Skykomish River.

What has been the impact on Chinook genetics, run timing, and ultimately survival of what were unique stocks before hatchery manipulation? Hatcheries can be used to re-build listed species. In essence, they are a tributary to the river they are built on. It is presumed that most hatchery fish come back to the hatchery, but a percentage don't. If they spawn in the river when their off-spring, whether from WxW, WxH, or HxH pairing, come up out of the gravel with an adipose fin and are considered "wild".

We've seen a steadily declining number of "wild" fish and that decline appears to track the cuts in hatchery production since the mid-1980s. Maybe those "dumb" hatchery fish were what has been sustaining natural spawning populations. Fish will adapt, given a chance.