cncfish -

It is my understanding that the Wallace coho hatchery program contributes substantially the availability of marked coho in the various marine mark selective fisheries.

The exact details of the program would be available via the HGMP available on WDFW's web site. It is a complex and surprising efficient program. The program goal is for an escapement in the 4,500 to 5,000 adult range with a green egg take goal of 4.5 million eggs. Of those eggs 200,000 are for the Wallace program proper, 2.1 million going to the Tulalip hatchery, 2 million for the south Sound and Squaxin net pen programs with the remainder going to programs like Eagle Creek.

The tribes are mass marking all their coho production though there is portion of that production that is not adipose clipped. I'm not sure what portion is actually fin clipped but am sure that is the majority. If it is important that portion can be determined. If I recall correctly roughly 15% of the hatchery coho returning to Puget Sound come from eggs taken at the Wallace hatchery. Though it is the case that only 1 or 2% of that production is head to the Wallace.

To recap the over all coho program on the Snohomish system provides some overall balance with what often is the State's largest wild runs (over the last decade the average wild escapement has been around 120,000) while contributing significant numbers of the fish to region's hatchery run.

While we all have different priorities when it comes to the value of wild and hatchery salmonids and each of use would probable tweak the Snohomish coho management one way or the other in the terms of hatchery and wild production I think it would be fair for many the current management is in the ballpark for that balancing act.

Curt