Originally Posted By: eyeFISH
That Snake River Fall Chinook program is a genetic mess. I posted on this at the end of my 2011 Buoy 10 thread after I found out one of the URB's we bonked was actually a Snake River fall fish from Lyons Ferry Hatchery.

That program is being run without much regard for genetic risk management. Already, the wild fish are no longer genetically distinguishable from hatchery fish... so many hatch fish allowed onto the gravel that the wild gene pool has literally been swamped by hatchery influence.

Bottom line, what they are using for "wild" broodstock in the hatchery ain't necessarily so. Opens up a lot of critical questions that no one seems to want to address.


As has been discussed "on the other board" the Snake River falls were returning in the triple digits. There were 2 choices to make: let the stock go extinct or conduct a recovery program that would inevitably mean hatchery production.

Is this clear enough to you, or should I explain it a different way?