Quote:
Originally posted by Iron Head:
Eventhough I don't agree with your first sentence for problem 1, I agree with you totally. I just have to say that fish do not have incest taboo like people (well most people). Wild or not, a male will breed to the nearest female in any situations.

In the wild something like three percent of the young from each redd survive to adulthood (if that) , so I would think the chance of inbreeding occuring in the wild would be very slim especially compared with the way hatchery fish are spawned and incubated.


Quote:
Originally posted by BossMan:
Solution #1 is one of the probelms with the current hatchery practices. Stocking a river with strains of fish not native to that river (.ie Chambers creek fish.)

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I believe that originally happened for two reasons. Chambers creek fish and the Greens fish were the easiest fish to transplant and had the best return rate. At the time hatcheries were initiated wild stocks in most rivers had been toasted and were to low in numbers to take for hatchery purposes.

If you did DNA testing on "wild" fish in most rivers today you would find that most "native stocks are polluted already with the DNA from hatchery plants. basically I believe most native stocks today are not nearly as genitically pure as they should be, most native stocks are already long gone. An adipose fin on a fish doesnt always mean its a native fish It just means it wasnt raised in a hatchery. For this reason I think we should do the best with what we have.

Quote:
Originally posted by Robert Allen3:
Micro


1. In most cases hatchery stocks are not native to the system they are planted in. For instance lewis river summer runs are not lewis river stock they are Skamania stock which is a combined Klickitat/ Washougal stock. Most summer runs planted in the state are Skamania stock . Just because you spawn fish with one hatchery with thoes in another hatchery doesn't mean that they are different stocks. Also there is the issue of local adaptation which was addressed above.

My solutuion for this would be for hatchery workers to spawn ever fish they have at the hatchery each male with one female and keep a certain percentage of each breeding pair. This would be expensive..
I am aware that many hatcheries use fish from the same sources. The exchange program would not be to mix stocks it would be to prevent inbreeding at the hatchery. Spawning pairs instead of spawning groups is a good Idea too but if those two fish were from the same hatchery there is and greater chance they are brother and sister because of the wonderful survival rate of incubated eggs. Thats why I would still recommend the exchange program but now I would like to add your Idea about spawning pairs.




Nature has its checks and balances and I dont believe fish or any other creatures inbreed as a naturally occuring event. Inbreeding causes lower I.Q's, more health problems, deformaties, and so on ETC..........