You're right Grandpa, but they were specifically referring to smolts... the ones released from the hatchery are MUCH larger than their wild counterparts of the same chronologic age. That's just one more way a genetically inferior creature is given an unfair advantage over one with superior genetics. That big fat smolt is gonna have a major survival advantage in terms of size, and it stands a good chance of returning to spawn in the wild. But pity it's poor progeny that don't have the proper genetics to produce returning adults. That lineage basically gets snuffed out in one generation.

In the meantime, wild fish are losing out at multiple levels in their natural lfe cycle. Hatchery smolts outcompete their wild counterparts by out-eating them and displacing them from the prime juvenile riverine habitat which is already in short supply. If that hatchery smolt returns as an adult to spawn in the wild, the spawning habitat it occupies will not be made available to a wild native fish. And for what? For its lineage to be snuffed out in the next generation?

That folks is a waste of the finite carrying capacity of in-river habitat.... mutant fish are taking up space and consuming limited resources, but producing no self-sustaining population. Those resources could serve a much higher and greater purpose if consumed by much more productive self sustaining runs of wild fish.

That's like replacing the best workers in a factory with lazy, good-for-nothing employees that turn out zero product. Let's see how long that factory stays in business! Carry that analogy to all the rivers up and down the west. What were once some of the most robust and productive natural "fish factories" have slipped into perpetual decline as more and more hatchery fish are pumped into them.

For the past century we have relied on hatcheries to make up for the lost natural productivity of degraded river systems. Habitat degradation becomes easier to ignore as long as fishable numbers continue to swim upriver to support the various fisheries. Too bad that the majority of those fish are artificially produced.

The science to support this is clearly there, but obviously, decision-makers have chosen to ignore the mistakes of the past and instead continue down the path of doom started 150 years ago. Short-term economic gain has foiled meaningful salmon recovery at every crossroads during this entire period. Unfortunately it seems nothing has changed.