I think if hatcheries are a culprit in doing away with wild salmon I suspect they would not be near the top of the list of culprits. A politician running for governor said something to the affect that we in Washington are a rare breed in that we actually catch and kill our endangered species (wild salmon and steelhead). Think of it another way. What if we took the bald eagle, our national bird, and allowed hunting of the bird? We would allow capturing and killing of only , say, 1,000 of them this year...We would just raise a bunch of chicks in hatcheries to make up for it. Would it be the eagle hatchery that we blame for the extinction of the national bird or the hunter?