Hatchery salmon are no longer being recycled into the river for nutrients on many of the rivers in Washington state in favor of them being sold to fish buyers. Just another compounding problem to the decrease in both salmon and steelhead.
My point is that hatchery fish must go on and be supported if you all would like to harvest a fish as opposed to the catch and release folks.
Raising hatchery fish does not have to be as expensive if they were not mated randomly. The survival rates would go way up if the department would do away with this gene diluting policy and do thier own natural selection.