posted 07-11-2002 08:24 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh where will the cute marine mammals go to for dinner if they shut down the Puget Sound hatcheries? You see there is a very huge population of harbor seals and sealions in Puget Sound whose numbers have swelled to match the amount of food available...namely salmonids. As it stands now the hatchery fish bear the vast brunt of there hunger. If there are no longer any hatchery fish to sustain this onslaught they will have to dine on something else? Can you guess what this might be. A seal population that is used to a dinner table set with likely a half million chinook counting blackmouth(my estimation) reduced to a wild only population of less than 50,000 on which to prey upon. In the short term those cuteys are gonna consume the same gross quantity of chinook...will the wild chinook habitat gains and survival gains offset this ecological fact enough to restore themselves? At least stay where they are currently? Or even survive this final foolishness? Yes I know we created the problem but thats a stupid argument if your overall concern is the restoration or even existence of those wild fish. Mother nature has its rules and predator prey relationships are part of it. A pretty well known thing amongst ecologists ....has anyone from Wash. Trout considered this or is it to inconvenient? Would really like to hear from the experts?