Locust,

I think your previous post is an oversimplification. Salmonid diversity is more complicated than just allele frequence. Heck, steelhead have chromosome numbers ranging from 58 to 64 depending on the strain you look at.

Thus the statement that "Genetic diversity in salmon and steelhead populations is extensive, and within-population diversity usually exceeds the diversity that exists between populations." is a clear exaggeration at best.

Variation in chromomsome number within a species is somewhat unusual and certainly a clear indication of extreme diversity within the species. I'm not aware of any steelhead strains that have within species variation in chromosome number. Are you?

Anyhow, your hypothesis that integrated hatchery and wild stocks will be fine genetically speaking seems weak to me at best. It is certainly untested. Yet we stand on the cusp of implementing it full scale statewide. Don't you think a few generations of experimentation is in order on a slecet few systems to confirm your hypothesis before we do a statewide experiment?


BTW, you never did address what S. malma had to say about first generation local stock hatchery fish and their lack of spawning success in the wild. This is the biggest potential problem I see, yet you don't even address it or the data supporting it.