Smalma made good points. Most importantly, causes other than harvest mortality are responsible for depressed and un productive runs, and catch and release fishing is an allocation tool, not a conservation tool.

Total catch and release fisheries mandate you have hatchery programs to sustain consumption in most fisheries. These hatchery programs are suffering from declining productivity similar to wild fish. They therefore must be large to meet the multitude of harvest expectations. These large, dominating hatchery programs contribute to declining productivity of the entire system, including wild fish.

There are many areas where there is good habitat for anandromous fish, complete catch and release on wild fish, and wild fish populations that are extinct, or near extinct. In these situations, catch and release regulations fit in with hatchery programs that produce enough fish for harvest with complete release of wild fish. The wild fish release makes us feel good, even self righteous about our contribution to conservation, along with a sense of relief that we can maintain our fishery even if the wild ones go extinct.

We can promise to do our part to help the fish, we will release all the non clipped ones without hurting them to the extent feasible, but please don't get so extreme to make us not do our catch and release (so we can catch the hatchery fish), and absolutely, don't touch our mega hatchery, the great and essential conservation tool that allows us to release the wild fish.

Wild fish conservation will be stronger with direct harvest of wild fish. The biological information, when and if applied conservately, can identify where harvest is acceptable. This harvest will not impose a conservation risk, and will decrease future production only a very small amount if at all. Maintaining the value of harvest derived from wild fish makes perfect sense and is good for the future of wild fish.