I don't mean to get off on a bad start on this forum, but i can tell that none of you have worked in a hatchery or have done any work actually spawning fish. Where exactly do you think hatchery fish are coming from?!?! It seems you guys think hatchery steelhead or some disgusting mutation of a fish. The truth is that hatchery steelhead come from wild steelhead. There is absolutely NO difference between a wild fish and a hatchery-raised fish! Artificially spawned fish are the offspring of both wild and hatchery-raised fish. And say you did get your way and hatcherys stopped spawning steelhead, how do you possibly think that wild fish could replace hatchery fish. over 25,000 steelhead were taken from the Hoh river in 1998, and more than half of those were hatchery fish. The point of hatchery fish are to cope with growing numbers of fishermen. With MORE people fishing, MORE fish are needed, and wild stocks could not deal with more people fishing. They would die out in a few years.

Just stating my opinion. I have experience with this stuff.

Tom