In addition to a century of demostrated failure there is lot of information now available indicating the harm/minimal benefit from planting of hatchery salmon fry. That said there are examples of success from fry plants though in most cases that occurred in areas of little or no salmon production (new introductions) and often in altered habitats. The often cited example of the Great Lakes is a classic example; however that does not mean that strategy would be universally successful.

Aunty -
"Wild fish are free"! Great comment which would be true if we lived in a perfect world. A large array of special interests and society as a whole are achieving economic benefits ($$) at the cost of the fish. To restore wild populations to something approaching reasonable productivity many folks are going to have give up a lot of economic value. Bottom line it costs a lot to keep wild fish and the sad reality is that most of us do not want to pay that cost. Though we all seem more than willing to shift that cost/blame to some one else.

How willing would you be to pay significantly more for your power, water, basic food stuff, etc?


GBL -
Just think how great the Situk would be if you were to establish a large scale hatchery program there. You could start by trapping most of the adults, stripping the eggs and out planting planting the fry. Should be able to easily double the numbers of returning adults and not have to worry about the whims of Mother Nature.(very much t.i.c.).

The so-call success of the outpalnting of hatchery coho fry on the Skykomish is largely a myth. When folks looked at the spawning information from the various streams in the Snohomish basin those recieving enhacnements (fry plants) were preforming no better than those not recieving plantings. Yes there was a dramatic increase in the over all basin coho escapements during the late 1990s and early 2000s, but those increaces were across the basin. This was in spite of decline marine overall coho survival - Harvest management changes benefited the escapements

Tight lines
Curt