Quote:
Originally posted by Robert Allen3:
Good way to approach this cowlitz....

The hatchery process weeds out genes that are adapted to life in the wild by thoes fish not surviving, all of the wild survival traits are breed out of the hatchery stock and the problem gets worse with each generation in the hatchery until there are none of thoes traits left and we are left with a hatchery fish that is maladapted to life in the wild. this is all based on studies done on the kalama and Deschutes rivers if you'd like me to post the actual studies I will..
tight lines
Rob
Rob, I question a couple of your comments.... first, just because critters adapt to thrive in one environment doesn't necessarily mean they lose all capability of surviving in the other, does it? I can't imagine it's a straight across exchange, one environment for another. I'm not pulling from data, I'm speculating. Can you corroborate, or prove otherwise?

Secondly, isn't it a good thing that hatchery fish do poorly in the wild? We don't want those whimpy things spawning, do we? wink I guess my question is driven by your comment about it getting "worse" with each generation. Seems to me that in a river with both hatchery and native fish, as long as we keep them separated (maybe that's where you're thinking we're failing), we've got nothing to worry about.

Again, cowlitzfisherman gots me thinking again, dammit. laugh