DK,

My understanding of the broodstock spawning in the wild issue is that they do better than non-local hatchery fish, but not as well as wild fish.

They are not the same as the wild fish, and any time spent in any sort of hatchery will create that difference. They are, however, much better than Chambers Creek fish.

The studies I have seen do not support broodstocking as producing more fish than wild spawning. In a nutshell, the wild fish removed from the river to enter a broodstock program would have produced more returning adults than the very same fish used in a broodstock program.

The difference is that the fish returning are now marked hatchery fish slated for harvest, removing the original wild fish's offspring from the wild gene pool as effectively as if she had just been bonked.

If you support broodstock programs because they produce higher quality fish for harvest and have a smaller bad effect on wild fish if they are allowed to spawn in the wild, then you are correct.

If you support them as a way to help wild fish, then you are not.

The Kalama studies have produced consistent results throughout the study period. WxW crosses have high smolt production and high adult returns, relatively speaking. HxH crosses have high smolt production, and statistically have no adult returns. HxW crosses have high smolt production, too, and while they have a statistically measurable amount of adult return, it is a significant reduction in productivity for the wild fish in the cross.

I just read that and it's not very clear, so I'll make an example.

If a wild male and wild female spawn, they produce X smolts, and return Y adults. If a hatchery male and wild female spawn, they also produce around X smolts, but return .1Y adults.

That cross just removed 90% of the wild female's productivity.

The other issue is that all those crosses do produce smolts that take up valuable habitat in rivers and compete with all the other smolts and reduce their opportunities. Then those crosses go out to see and never come back.

Those are the reasons why you are always doing wild steelhead a favor by bonking as many hatchery fish as possible, especially in rivers that do not have collection facilities and are outplanted there.

Fish on...

Todd.