Originally Posted By: Smalma


If we hope to ever see larger hatchery Chinook there really are two alternatives; confining all Chinook fishing to extreme terminal areas by eliminating all ocean fisheries or attempt to reverse the shrinking trend through careful husbandry. Somehow I don't think that former is likely leaving us with the second option.




Agreed on all counts, but I still have grave doubts about the ability of such selective breeding to overwhelm the tremendous capacity of the ocean fishery to disproportionately exploit the older/larger phenotype.

Bottom line, old/large genetics are a POOR fit for the selection pressures in the killing fields. Smaller/younger is the winning strategy in the ocean environment we have created for chinook.
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"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!