Tug, I think research has shown that the more nature is mimicked in hatcheries, the "more fit" the fish are for the wild. I don't see how what happened at Kalama helped in that generation as the hatchery and wild fish were subject to the same conditions once released. That doesn't mean that John didn't produce fish that would do better in the river as fry.

But, at Minter, and at Tokul, when predator netting was installed the in-pond survival of coho and steelhead went way up. It went up so much at Minter that the "rolled the pond" (lost a lot of fish) because they didn't know of the loss of fish. Not only birds, but rats. Sounds to me like Kalama had a much higher release as they lost fish they were unaware of.