QUOTE]Originally posted by kjackson:
where NOAA got its hands spanked for counting hatchery fish as part of the ESU during the listing process but ignoring them when evaluating the health of the run.
Keith [/QUOTE]

KJ: I have not seen the final proposal. Can you give us a link to it?

My concern is that, as you said, NOAA will be required to consider hatchery fish in evaluation the health of a run. I cannot see how the amount of hatchery fish can be considered as a determinate of the health of a run.

I am NOT against hatcheries. I know we need them to sustain any decent sort of sport fishing. But that does not mean we can call a wild run healthy just because there is a strong hatchery run.

I believe we can and should have strong hatchery runs, but that we can still work to minimize their deleterious effects on wild runs.

There is no doubt that the declines of our wild runs have been caused by a plethora of problems ranging from dams, gill nets, clear cuts, pollution, dredging and many other causes. But that does not mean we should not continue to work to solve any other problems we can identify.