Neander, Consider that if you cut out a sizeable chunck of the hatchery funding to ameliorate the wild fish situation then you have laid off, terminated , down sized the fisheries expert, biologist, hathery pool cleaners, etc. A lot of the debate is pretty basic job survival food on the table kind of stuff. It has a tendency to shroud the issue as in obfuscate. Those with a career in raising hatchery fish will for the most part resist change in wild salmonid policys and those who pass the budgets will pass what ever they think will get them the most votes in any given early November.