Ah yes, let us remember in this hatchery / wild thing what species your talking about and the history of the stock is a real driver as to the product of the discussion. If your addressing the subject in present terms as a snap shot in time then your missing the mark.

So let me share this and the tittle will be HOW I KNOW I AM A DUMBASS. Years back I was invited to be in a private bulletin board do to my knowledge of tree farms that has on average 16 to 20 people of varying back grounds that exchange views on fishery issues. So I decided to put forth a little ditty on why the hatchery wild interaction was a driver on Chinook declines. Well now I got all my references, bullets, and quotes and I must say a did one hell of a 4 page paper. Off it goes and a couple of days later I see a reply post that kinda went like this.

The points you bring forward regarding hatcheries for discussion and present as the possible root cause of Chinook population reduced spawning success, tell me now were they :

Before or after the ocean fisheries removed the 5 & 6 year age group

Before or after the ocean fishery has substantially reduced the 4 year group.

Before or after the preveous two items resulted in a reduction in the average size thus reduced spawning success rates.

Before or after human activities permanently altered the the estuary rearing areas.

Before or after tree farms turned forest land into long term agriculture permanently altering the hydraulics of streams as to surging and low summer flows.

Well he had a MUCH LONGER list but I think you get the drift as the Chinnok runs of today are not as large as in the past but the creature itself does not faintly resemble the Chinook of 100 years ago let alone 200 years. Then he dropped the hammer. My writing that took one part of the history of the human interaction , the present hatchery issue I addressed, and ignoring the massive and unalterable changes imposed upon the creature in the last two hundred years by human interaction be it harvest, environment, or hatchery was lacking. In addition as the human desire to catch and consume the creature for food was most likely to increase with the population, then a manner of producing Chinook for harvest that affords protection to the creatures survival must be developed and utilized.

He closed that my inability to identify and grasp the full magnitude and nature of historical and future human impacts on the creature made me a dumbass. Well one thing about it, judging by this thread I have a lot of company in the " dumbass category ".