Originally Posted By: GodLovesUgly
What we CAN'T do is have 10's of thousands of surplus hatchery fish coming back to our hatcheries.

"Fish on the beds" is one thing, we would all like wild fish to hit the gravel, but if we do not show an ability to harvest our hatchery fish (surpluses) NMFS will pull our permits to release them. Plain and simple. Then we're ALL fvcked!


Not that simple. You are correct if those surplus fish end up on the spawning grounds, competing with wild salmon. That's not good. But there are a number of management actions that attempt to minimize that risk. If the fish managers can reduce the risk, either in time or space, the impacts to wild salmon can be reduced to acceptable levels.