Cowlitz,
So glad to see your posts again! (Really!) I think you can state the case for hatcheries as well as anyone and I sometimes have to actually think about the "Big Picture" before I can respond to your ideas. To me, however, the big picture includes the condition of our rivers and fish populations decades from now, when we will be judged on our actions or inaction. You mentioned filling the need of the majority. The majority of people in the northwest 1) don't fish, 2) want their tax revenues spent on education, transportation, and social services, and 3) think a salmon is a fish that returns to the place it was born to spawn and die. They actually derive inspiration from that!

If you still think the "majority" need fish for harvest, how about the financial practicality of sustaining the current level of harvest into the next century? How many more fishermen will there be in 2102? 4 times as many? 5? Are we 21st century anglers actually the minority? Is each 22nd century angler going to be entitled to 30 salmon/year? Who is going to pay for maybe 5 times the hatchery production we have now? The expense of running hatcheries is already accelerating at a rate that is forcing closures in Washington and Oregon. Lastly, how many more wild fish stocks will disappear to ensure the future fishermen get to tag several fish per month?

I anxiously await your reply!