I really hate to step back into this thread, because I think we should all move on, but I gotta show Bob All 3 some support. A few bonkaholics above noted that the funding of research will bias the results...True! So ignore all research?! Give me a break! I suppose you don't take medicines because some money-driven drug company stands to profit from the research that developed it! Think about that the next time you reach for a bottle of Advil because your arm's aching from so much bonkin'! Any true scientist knows, when reviewing studies on any subject, you have to put your trust in what the majority of evidence indicates is fact. Bob All 3 is right in stating that the majority of studies out there indicate that hatchery fish do harm wild fish populations. I would not accept that as fact myself if I had not done a lot of reading and talking with biologists myself. I encourage anyone to do the same before forming their opinion.
After painfully reading through most of this thread, I've come to a conclusion about the gotta-bonk community: You guys couldn't care less about whether native salmonids survive. All you care about is whether or not there is a fish you can kill in your favorite hole. All the inspiration and beauty that comes from seeing salmon spawn (with some possibility of success) and return to the river where they were born (circle of life kind-of stuff),...To H*$# with it! To H$#@ with what it means to the millions of people who don't fish and who think for some strange reason that salmon are fish that return to the stream where they were born! You may say you don't advocate killing wild fish, but what's the difference between bonking them to extinction and pushing them to extinction through innundation with hatchery fish? Your short-sighted self conscious?
I bonk plenty of brats and I release plenty of nates. I see value in both. I agree with Bob All 3 in that there's plenty of potential for good fisheries to exist in Oregon and Washington for nates and brats, but not necessarily in the same rivers. Can't have 500,000 hatchery smolts planted in your favorite local river because they damage native fish?....Boo hoo hoo! Gimme gimme gimme!!!!!!!! After all, this thread began with a comment to the effect that we should give up on restoring the nates and dump more brats in the rivers from a person who didn't even know the difference between wild and native.