Lifter,
I have wrote letters to the Commission, bios, Govenor, WDFW. Some responded but the majority fall on deaf ears... kind of like yours. Do you work for the government? I should say that at least you have been responding here by doing your best to defend the work of the WDFW. Kudos to you for that.
The 10 or so hatcheries that you mention represent only a few of the total number of hatcheries in Washington state. So is what I said an inaccurate statement? Are you going to argue based on that?
Out of the 10 that you mention that have some recycling going on I am more familiar with 4 of them and all of those 4 do far less recycling (like less than 50%) than they used to 15-20 years ago. Many rivers do none at all and some of those include the most expensive and modern facilities in the state. I think that it would surprise you some of the ones that do absolutely zero. I think that eyefish's montra that he is unable to let go of (due to pride) should be changed to All Spawned Hatchery Fish Must Be Returned To The River. His current one is misleading (conveys the wrong message) and makes hatchery fish look bad.

Did you really think that I did not even consider that naturally spawning fish add to nutrient enhancement. I thought that they were all taken away to fish heaven so thanks for pointing out the obvious. In doing this are you trying to strengthen your argument (which I assume is that there is enough being done by the state)?
The information that Carcassman presents is excellent and should be a good start to establishing/proposing how many fish should be returned. I agree with RtndSpawner in that the smell of decomposing fish is a wonderful smell that is no longer present because of the lack of dead fish.
To summarize: I am arguing that there needs to be more dead fish put back in rivers to increase the survival of our salmon/steelhead (both wild and hatchery). Lifter, you seem to defend the departments actions and argue that what the state is doing enough on the correct path. Please let me know if I am wrong.