Quote:
Originally posted by Curtis H.:
robert,

you are way off, hatchery fish have very little impact on natives in the rivers that are talked about in this thread. They come in little contact with one another as the bulk of the hatcheries come in dec and early january and the bulk of natives come in march, or even later on some rivers.
What about the rest of their lives? Do hatchery fish compete with wild fish during the juvenile phases of their lives? Do hatchery fish help inflate the number of predators in the system? Hatchery fish help support cormorants and mergansers. Those birds eat wild fish too. Same with seals/sea lions in the salt water.
Is it possible that the hatchery influences water quality? There's more to it than just interaction of spawning adults.
The Skagit gets a piss-poor return for the number of fish they plant anyway.