CFM,

The jury is out on how well hatchery fish can or can't help recover wild runs.

While all of the science shows that the interaction of wild and hatchery fish generally does not pass on any genetic material from the hatchery fish, there are specific situations where it has worked, to some extent.

It's a bit like talking apples and oranges, though, when we talk about those examples.

Situation one is the S.Fk. Skykomish above Sunset Falls. A fish trap and trucking program has opened up dozens of miles of spawning habitat that was previously not accessible by anadromous fish.

While there are no "native" anadromous fish up there, there are now wild, self-supporting runs of steelhead, silvers, chinook and pinks.

These runs don't have any native fish competition, nor any harvest fisheries, at least up there. The habitat is also in super shape, and there is a lot of it.

I'm not sure what the difference is with those runs...the fish that established those runs were mainly wild fish in the case of the salmon, but mainly hatchery fish in the case of the steelhead. Only time will tell, but it seems to be working pretty well so far.

Another example is the massive stocking of rivers such as the Methow and the Wenatchee, and others in the critical habitat of the endangered steelhead over there. They're supposed to be "supplemental" fish, those who are intended to spawn and create more "wild" fish. I haven't seen much that says it is working or that it's not...just that they get a lot of hatchery fish back, and that there still aren't very many wild fish.

A third would be the upper Cowlitz fish. I guess only time will tell there, too, if using hatchery stock to replenish wild runs will work. It looks like there are quite a few silvers and steelhead making it back up there.

The evidence is pretty clear that non-local hatchery fish, as they go through the generations, become less and less productive, even in the hatcheries. Look at PS hatchery winter run steelhead for evidence of that.

Using fish that are close to local fish may not have very good productivity, but maybe it will improve over several generations.

I guess the dependent factor will be if the numbers can reach a point where they can do more than just replace themselves (S.Fk Sky), and that they don't hit the point where they can no longer replace themselves (PS hatchery winter runs).

I think that using hatchery fish to help help out recovery of wild fish may have a few different reasons, like...

1. It might work.
2. It requires hatchery fish.
3. Hatchery fish are there for harvest, too, so fisheries are able to take place.

If they didn't use hatchery fish, then they'd be better off to stop stocking hatchery fish and stop fishing over the runs. I think we all know that would work better than anything else, assuming there's some habitat to use, than anything we can do with hatcheries.

However, that would mean no commercial fisheries and no sport fisheries...and that wouldn't fly politically.

Fish on...

Todd.