CM having been away from rearing fish for some time I had to think back to the eggbox days and how things have changed. Technology has advanced so much that many aspects of labor-intensive things are not so now. Electronic egg pickers can pick bad eggs from a spawn in hours that used to take days. Many things like the advancement in mass marking, pathology, and rearing technics are amazing. The knowledge of what one should do or not do is huge to say the least. For myself the previously mentioned were an eye opener also the numbing realization that no hatcheries no harvest in rapid order.

So like it or not harvesters of salmon will be dependent upon protection of wild populations and hatchery production for harvest. Hatcheries need to be cost effect and well thought out. Now how to get WDFW to well thought out has and will continue to be a bit difficult shall we say. Cost effective? Remember the famous budget cuts a few years back? Well on the hatchery side it was more less fish food marking reducing production but not institutional changes and took the hatcheries to a horrible cost benefit ratio.

Failures like the subject of this thread are just so unacceptable and only give those apposed to hatcheries more ammo in budgets. This is about as acceptable as those who advocate planting fish everywhere which is as nuts as get rid of hatcheries is. Harvest will be dependent on hatcheries more in the future, not less. They need to be run effectively, genetically sensitive, environmentally correct, and be cost effective.

The screw up that is what this thread is about again is not acceptable. In the private sector if this had happened at a facility heads would roll. You do not lose such a massive percentage of your production and stay in business. From the head of hatcheries right down the line of administrative authority this is about process and quality control. For WDFW I fear it is business as usual.