"Hatcheries can have a place in fisheries management," he said. "The key issue is how to minimize their impacts on wild populations."
Hatcheries serve only one effective purpose in fisheries management.... as a feel good means of fueling harvest harvest harvest. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS.
The sad by-product of artificial fish culture is the collateral damage done to wild fish populations.... and it happens in two ways.
1) Way too many wild fish are "incidentally" slaughtered in our present-day fish managers' lust to harvest those hatchery fish.
2) Way too many wild fish are denied their reproductive potential when their seed is literally wasted when they are unfortunate enough to spawn with some hatchery mutant.
The only good hatchery fish is a dead hatchery fish. They should either be liberally harvested (using the most selective fishing techniques possible, of course) or liberally bonked and spread throughout the host drainage for nutrient enhancement.
Naturally-spawning hatchery fish = bad ju-ju, VERY bad ju-ju!
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"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)
"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)
The Keen Eye MDLong Live the Kings!