Ramprat,

While hatchery costs do vary, one of the last good figures I heard for WDFW hatcheries was about $6 per pound of fish raised. Chum salmon are often reared to 400 fish per pound, if not smaller, while steelhead are raised to 6/lb., chinook 90/lb., coho 15/lb. The smolt to adult survival rate varies, usually according to size of smolts at release, and by species. One half of one percent to recruitment would be very good for chum, about the same or a little higher for chinook, about 7% for coho, altho higher in HC as I recall, and 2-3% for steelhead. So you can see that WDFW can raise a lot of chums for not so much money.

The real question is, why bother raising hatchery chum in HC at all? Natural production of chum is good. The commercial value of chum is low, and as we are seeing, the value is primarily in the roe. Why should public funds be expended to subsidize a roe fishery? Might the public interest be better served by just letting those low value chums run up their rivers and spawn and fertilize aquatic ecosystems, benefitting other species, including ones with greater social value?

Sincerely,

Salmo g.