I have been told by an expert in the field who has studied the hatchery reports thoroughly that nearly 60,000 hatchery salmon were "surplused" (ie given to food banks or ground into fertilizer) in 2003, about 70,000 in 2002. Last year the bay, the river, and tribs were LOADED with kings and yet there was no harvest opportunity on what I have been told were predominately unmarked hatchery fall chinook.

The Chehalis system is entirely barbless single hook for salmon. With proper handling, hook and release mortalities are acceptable. An emergency order this year liberalizing the season to the retention of only clip fin coho thru Sept 30 in the river and tribs would have made many more hatchery fish available to in-river anglers who might otherwise have have no chance to participate in the ocean/bay fishery.

It begs the question, why are we producing these hatchery fish if not for harvest opportunity? At a cost of nearly $4.00/pound just to raise them to smolt size, f we are not going to be given the harvest opportunity on the returning adults, then why continue the artificial propagation of these fish?