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.
I'm not too sure I'm on parr with that last sentence.
Are you telling me that if man were to completely disappear off of the face of this earth, that the wild steelhead on the Quinault (or any) river wouldn't fully return (gene wise) back to their original, or close-to-original state?
Actually, kinda funny in that the Quinault will probably be under a kilometer of ice in 10,000 years or so....so it probably don't really matter any ways.
The steelhead will have migrated south to the "new" Mecca of Steelheading - Southern California.
Gotta love Geologic Time!
All in all makes sense, other than DFW trying to create harvest opportunities is there any other reason they'd support it?
Harvest Opportunity and Recovery tend to be used in the same sentence with the WDFW.
We want our cake AND our ice cream, too.
Honestly, I don't believe we really can have both. True recovery means to complete STOPPING of all harvesting and fishing on a system. So, now it's about compromises.
As I said, if you gotta have the opportunity to harvest, I'd vote for a well run broodstocking program over a hatchery.
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