Obviously... barnettum has totally missed the point. Objectivity is a good thing when based upon facts that substantiate what a person is trying to point out. Reading his self-informed posting is tantamount to either an employee of the hydro-electric company or he makes a living in the greater colombia river basin.

The fish counts he refers to are in no way any kind of record that would hold up against 100 years ago of wild salmon that werent exploited to near extinction, thus, giving our government the authority to put "wild salmon" on the endangered species list, and imposing fines and prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law for possession of said fish. The government wins either way, $$$ cash for ignorance and jobs to enforce it just in case. The fish lose.

These precious fish have been harassed, Exploited, wasted grossly and dammed away from their natural habitat to the brink of extinction. Your point of hatchery fish being there to pick up the slack is duly noted and will satisfy those that don't care about the difference- after all- we are men, and man comes first. Men built the dams for multiple reasons that benefit man- understood.

Interesting as it may sound, you have points that must be understood and do benefit man, but not the fish. I for one, do not accept your attempt at selling me and my fellow fishermen on the "hatchery" run production as compensation for the loss of Natural wild Salmon and Steelhead habitat. I never have and never will believe what people like this try to sell me.

Try looking at it (without being so obtuse) from the wild salmons point of view. Sure, they are just a stupid fish and contribute nothing to any of us other than food and recreation- this is what you believe and would have ME believe as well.

Sound thinking on the wild salmon and steelheads behalf is the ability to see how it was BEFORE our invention of the fish counting machine and these dams and making sure that their rights as contributors to life on this planet are not just disregarded like the carcasses of chum and dogfish for their eggs only just for mankind to profit from.

I will never be the saviour of these magnificent animals, I only know that things are drastically different with the installations of the water stopping concrete super human power machines and that I wish the intelligent community of man as a whole would be brave enough to face the truth and use alternate methods of making a profit.

Pollution- our rivers are full of it and may never recover. The farms that dump pesticides, the industry that dumps concrete and hazordous chemicals into it..., and the commercial fishermen... and the indians with their improved technology on netting them and wasting them , man is out of control in areas that could have been better thought out.

Its just my opinion but who made man god? When will it be time for mans lease on these fish to exploit be up? The answer is NEVER thanks to people thinking of only themselves. Accepting the what the fish counter says and what the man in the white shirt tells you makes you a sheep in todays world. I have two good eyes and have seen the truth and I do see where we have come from to this point.

There is a better way, it just takes courage to get it done. Want to know how i know?
A Great King told me.