Todd

Your last post jives with every credible discussion I have heard and read on the subject of hatchery productivity vs wild productivity. It really confirmed my suspicions about how even these "designer" local broodstock hatchery programs, while touted as a better alternative to old hatchery ways, still fall short of true wild production.

As I stated in the thread about MSY last month, at no time in the history of hatchery "enhancement" or "restoration" programs has it been shown that hatcheries come anywhere close to wild production. The question then is why do we continue to mine wild eggs from rivers with healthy wild runs, when all the data shows that production would have been maximized by allowing those fish to seed the gravel naturally? Salmo g? S malma? CFM?
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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!