Anyone ever been to West Virginia? Familiar with inbreeding?
This never seems to be brought up so i thought i would take a shot at it. Everyone says genetically inferior, but does anyone ever explain what that means. First of all, you could compare most hatchery broodstock collection as inbreeding. Imagine if the Smith's from portland were chosen to participate in a people hatchery program ( heaven knows well always have enough people in the northwest, however) The smith's or "smith strain" will be pretty diverse at first. The smiths have ancestors from Italy . Norway, Germany, and Tasmania. But after twenty years The populations of Smiths have multiplied into the millions, thanks to hatchery production. Unfortunately, what the US F&W didn't realize is that the Smith's carry the genen for heart disease, asthma, and diabetes, also this rare disease that only comes around every 100 years.
Being that the smith strain has had no new members join their family for 100 years their immune system has weakened and they are suseptable to many new diseases also. Dont get me wrong; they can "fight like hell," "I never seen a person jump like those Smiths do." The only problem is that if a disease that they are not ready for "the kalama influenza" is now in their population. It is irradicating much of the Smith's population. The only people that have survuved, are the native Kalama family. The native Kalamaonians are very small due to smith competition. ( 1 million Smith's in a river with 1 thousand natives) So now we are down to a total population of fifty Native Kalamaonians, and fishing season is closed.
My point is inbreeding of fish is as ridiculous as inbreeding of people. There are modern ideas that are being implemented. such as wild broodstock hatchery programs, that collect wild eggs, and increase the wild populations. Anyone heard of other types of modern hatchery practices. When I was out at the Imnaha a couple of years ago I noticed their weir system for wild broodstock collection. Also, according to Wa F&W there is an operating wild broodstock system on the kalama.