Quote:
Originally posted by Salmo g.:


The research we have (primarily Kalama River) indicates that hatchery steelhead spawning in the natural environment produces few to no returning adults. Same for hatchery X wild crosses, which is why we'd rather not have hatchery fish spawning with a wild fish. It's wastes the production potential of one wild spawner. Wild X wild is what produces returning adults.

I heard the same thing from Pete Soverel at the Wild Salmon Center. Hatchery fish spawning in the wild yield negligible numbers of returning adults. Why take a chance on wasting the reproductive potential of a native by "poisoning" it with a hatchery cross. They may produce juveniles, but damned few of them survive to adulthood. In the meantime those juveniles will just compete with wild ones, further diminishing wild productivity.

The big question is do these observations at the Kalama River hold up in the setting of a wild broodstock hatchery program? Salmo G?
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"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!