Met'lheadMatt,

Actually I'm a fish advocate, and I'm not invariably opposed to hatchery fish. I've included hatchery as well as wild fish production as a part of several hydro settlements I've been involved in.

You asked, ". . . wehat is the best of the two evils.... Why do the scientist not want to answer this. . . ." Generally it's not the scientist's job to answer that question. The scientist's job is to provide information about the most likely outcome associated with several potential alternative actions. The decision between the choices is usually a policy decision and not a scientific one. That's how our society is organized.

If you're telling me that I'm stuck with having hatcheries and I should choose the lesser evil, I'd do this: Where wild steelhead populations are healthy I recommend an integrated program, supplementing with native wild broodstock, up to a level not exceeding 25% (this may need adjusting downward) of the natural production population size. Only unmarked wild fish would be used, so no more than F1 hatchery fish would ever enter the hatchery production cycle. Of course one should reasonably ask why supplement a healthy population, particularly when the limit of 25% is less than the inter-annual natural variation in run sizes.

I would also choose an integrated native wild broodstock program where the native fish are endangered, and action appears necessary to prevent the extinction of the native populations, like currently exists on Hood Canal tributaries.

In the case where a native wild steelhead run is not so healthy I'd recommend a segregated program, such as with Chambers Ck. Recent genetic studies on the Skagit and Cowlitz show that even after a half century of Chambers Ck releases, Chambers introgression among the wild population remains low. Good hatchery management practices have the potential to reduce it even lower. Of course at the rate things are going, with programs using Chambers stock nearly tipping into the abyss of hatchery population non-viability, this option may be removing itself from the menu we have available to choose from.

That's what I'd recommend based on what I know now if told I had to make the choices.

Sg