This research sounds pretty interesting, but I think raising the fish in this more 'natural' manner is to increase outmigrant survival, rather than make it a stronger fish. Teach the fish how to feed and that there are things that will kill it before it reaches the ocean.

Pure and simple, most hatchery stocks are not nearly as robust as wild stocks because they are up to 40 years removed from their wild ancestors with very little reinjection of wild genes. It would be nice if in every 2 or 3 generations, eggs and milt from wild fish were mixed in.

The downsize to this is that fish managers do not want these less robust hatchery fish to reproduce in the wild. You're right about these guys not being very successful at natural reproduction. Same thing at work--these fish haven't sniffed out good spawning water and dug a redd in generations. Hatchery managers also artificially select for early returns so as not to overlap with the later returning wild runs.

To preserve the genetic integrity of wild runs, you either have to select for an early returning, non-reproducing, weaker hatchery fish to minimize interaction with wild fish; or use wild fish as brood stock year after year so it doesn't matter if these "hatchery raised natives" reproduce with there purely wild counterparts. The latter is done on the Quinault River and in Canada. Its also a lot more expensive to operate.

All in all, I'm grateful for both the summer and winter 'brats'. On a good year, I'll catch 4:1 hatchery to wild fish so there's just no incentive at all to kill a wild one.

[This message has been edited by obsessed (edited 06-22-2000).]