Originally Posted By: Todd
They do it to provide harvest opportunities.

The response is that "wouldn't you rather have these broodstock fish spawning in the river rather than the out of basin Chambers brats?"...and the answer for me is, "probably not".

Thanks to the virtual destruction of the early component of our wild winter runs, there are very few chances for the hatchery fish to interact with the wild fish, and the Chambers Creek duds spawning with each other produces statistically "zero" returning adults, so their impact is minimal.

Having the broodstock fishing returning with and spawning with the wild fish does them no favors whatsoever, and the science has been very clear on that over the years...there is an immediate reduction in fitness, and it may even compound itself over the next few generations.

The problem with that is once that Genie's out of the bottle, you can't get it back in.

Fish on...

Todd


All in all makes sense, other than DFW trying to create harvest opportunities is there any other reason they'd support it?

Keith
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It's time to put the red rubber nose away, clown seasons over.