Hatchery fish tend to be a double whammy when it comes to competition with wild fish...

1. They compete with wild fish for spawning territory, and the eggs they lay do hatch and produce juveniles. Those juveniles compete with wild fish for feeding, rearing, and winter flood protection terrirtories...not to mention competing for scarce food resources.

2. After all of that, all the fish go to sea and presumably there is some competition for space and food in the estuary, at least, if not out in the open ocean as well.

That's when they compete...and what do we get for the cost of that competition to wild fish?

Nothing, really. Those same progeny of hatchery fish that competed in the river don't come back from the sea as well as the wild fish do...the actual rate of return varies from "zero" in the case of Chambers Creek winter run stock, to somewhat better than that for Skamania summer run stock.

The newest study shows that even using local stocks for hatchery brood stock can, if the unavoidable occurrence of using second generation hatchery fish in the hatchery takes place, produce the same level of competition while producing far less adult recruits.

I don't see a conflict in promoting hatcheries for harvest needs, and seeking to protect wild fish.

First, do not mine the wild populations for hatchery fish...it doesn't work, it decreases the fitness of the wild stock, and it transfers some of that reproductive effort from wild stock production to harvestable fish production...not good for the wild fish.

Second, keep the two runs (hatchery and wild) completely segregated, as the Chambers Creek and native winter runs are...greatly reduces the instances of interbreeding, and doesn't require mining of the wild population to make the hatchery fish.

Third, do not release hatchery fish into streams that do not have viable and effective fish collection facilities...catch as many of the hatchery fish as possible, and then make sure as many of the rest as possible make their way into a fish trap and out of the river.

It's very important to understand the difference between a hatchery program that produces fish for harvest (like what I just outlined), and a hatchery program that is intended to "save" wild fish...the latter uses local broodstock in an effort to "re-create" the wild run, and is the type of program that the most recent study is cautioning against relying on to do so.

Fish on...

Todd