Originally Posted By: JustBecause
Generally and especially when there are listed stocks involved, total exploition rates are significantly lower than those historic rates, even when the are mixed H&W. Your argument is somewhat of a false choice as nobody fishes to those rates anymore and the wild fish don't really care who kills them or how or where. If you want to say that selective fishing is a more efficient use (economic benefit wise or NI rec fishery season length wise) of each dead wild fish, regardless of ER limitation, ok. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking we don't kill wild fish though, please.


I said the same thing, but used less words. To wit:

"If fishing is non-selective, the wild fish will be harvested at the same rate as the hatchery fish."

I never said we don't kill wild fish. I simply stated that if we can't differentiate between wild fish and hatchery fish, both will be harvested at the same rate. Either high, low, or anything in between.

If we harvest at a rate that is consistent with wild fish productivity (i.e., low), there will likely be lots and lots of hatchery fish that aren't harvested.

We can argue about the value of putting lots of hatchery fish on the spawning grounds with the wild fish, but that's a different issue.......