BC steelhead are in worse shape than WA. The problem with rebuilding a wild run with hatchery fish is that hatchery fish, even the first generation, are less well-suited to live in the wild. So, you need more of them spawning to equal the wild fish. Say, for argument, 1.5 hatchery to 1 wild. So, the first thing you do is take a productive wild fish out of the run, put it in the hatchery, and make it less productive. Then, they come back. Since they are hatchery fish, we want to kill them. So we end up with less effective fish on the grounds.

I think the one type of situation where hatchery fish could work in recovery is to mass plant for 4 years (cover all broodlines), let them all spawn, and then leave the system alone while Darwin works overtime to week out the bad genes. Doesn't allow for much harvest, which would be the problem.

Society seem sto be demanding two things that are mutually exclusive right now; lots of fish to kill and lots of fish on the grounds.