excellent post. I think you have to make some hard definitions to clearly state a purpose. I like the recovery moniker better than conservation....as you clearly state conservation should be part of any program. Harvest programs tend not to be used in recovery purposes because they may use weird broodstocks, but people will use roundabout wishy washy logic that they are keeping harvest off the natural stock, and are actually therefore conservation programs. Fine, but this is why conservation is a poor term, especially when you see its synonym: supplementation. I mean what is supplementation? Is is for supplementing harvest, or spawners, or both, or maybe mortality associated with habitat effects? Terms are extremely important as they evoke context, precision, and even emotion associated with people's interpretation of them. I like your suggested terminology.
Thanks for that feedback.
That really is my beef. The existing terminology and mis-applied synonyms cloud the intended objective(s)... or worse yet, defeat them altogether.
If you want to recover a run with hatchery fish, then dammit, just do it. But don't try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes that you're going to do it with a few extra fish "to spare" for harvest.
On the flip side, mass manufacturing salmon for harvest isn't necessarily a sin. But if we're gonna crank out factory fish for harvest, then let's structure fisheries to selectively target those fish and let's harvest the crap out of them. If impacts to other stocks constrain our ability to feasibly do that, then maybe we ought to reconsider the value of mass-producing said fish if they're just gonna end up uncaught at the hatchery rack.
WDFW seems to think you can simultaneously recover and harvest a run with hatchery fish. I say BS. If you do it that way, I guarantee you won't do either one very well at all, even after spending bazillions of dollars on hatchery fish. And the historical record would support that. Case after case of little to no recovery as well as case after case of harvest mismanagement allowing too many hatch fish to swim by uncaught.
The truth is that harvest and recovery are at diametrically opposed odds against one another. No if's and's or but's, the promotion of one comes at the direct expense of the other. We can either do a decent job of each in isolation, or a $hitty job of both in combination.
The historical record speaks for itself.
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