If these winter storms don't significantly increase the numbers of hatchery steelhead showing up at hatchery racks, none of the hatcheries in the entire system is going to meet broodstock requirements this season. This has got to be the worst returns every by a very long country mile. A complete cycle like this and the Chambers Creek hatchery steelhead program in WA state is over. I can't believe I'm typing this.

Take a look at Cowlitz, no less. 3 hatchery steelhead and 4 wild steelhead. They are all one stock now, with the Chambers Ck stock eliminated a couple cycles ago. I think over a half million hatchery smolts were released, and the number of wild smolts is a small fraction of that. Yet more wilds have returned so far than have hatchery stock. I know that wilds generally survive at a significantly higher rate than the hatchery smolts, but this is beyond weird to me. I can't figure this out.