Pimp'n,

Every credible study ever done on cross-breeding of hatchery and wild steelhead has shown that very few, if any, of the progeny return as adults.

The info that FishDoc posted is accurate.

Do a little research and you will find all the answers to your concerns. Start right here on this BB with the "search" function and you'll find citations to all the studies.

On your question regarding hatchery fish returns, they average about 3% return rate. That means if 100,000 fish are released from a hatchery, 3,000 fish will return, on average. If a wild run produced 100,000 smolts, it would return more like 9,000 to 14,000 adults.

The reason that there are more hatchery fish is that they don't plant 10,000...they plant 300,000, or 1,000,000. Even with very low return rates that adds up to a lot of fish.

Studies have shown that hatchery fish are inferior to wild fish in these ways:

1. percentage return rate
2. predator avoidance
3. reproductive fitness
4. genetic diversity
5. diversity among life history components
6. diversity among habitat utilization

And more...those are just the high points. All the research is out there, and most of it has been referenced on this BB at some point, so it should be pretty easy to find.

Fish on...

Todd

I edited your post Todd