Mother Nature put all of those body parts on her fish for a reason, then along comes man and cuts them off!

Just one more "biological reason" why hatchery fish don't survive as well as wild unmarked smolts do. I don't exactly know what each fish fins function performs, or plays in its survival, but you could easily assume its like cutting off your big toe! You can keep walking and running, but you will never have the same kind of balance as you had when it was attached. You don't see very many track runners breaking records that have a missing big toe.

Cowlitzfisherman