RG with WDF&W it ALWAYS best to question as WDF&W has history of cookin the books. Now this is one that was around a few years back concerning release numbers. It was not that they purposely put out wrong numbers but rather the smolt released had a problem so 500k could be the correct number of fish but if the health is such that only 1/3 survive the fresh to salt transition then one could & should question the accuracy. So a released smolt is not necessarily 100% healthy as planting forms do not identify the fishes historical and present condition.

I got nailed with BKD for several years and the Pathologist estimated that one release of 700k had a infection rate of 40% of the population which meant in real terms that 700k was 420k of a viable smolt. The other side of it was we got a great return as we had very high & colored water on the out migration and reasonable ocean survival resulting in a adult return almost what 700k normally produced.