Oh my!

I think I just saw a flock of pigs go flying by.

With so many factors of their demise.. It's just difficult the grasp at the fact that it could be such a defining factor. More data and more time will lead us to more answers and firm up those that we have so far..

Keith

Your right Milt its not all bad there are also a few encouraging bright spots amongst the dark , annother is the columbia sockeye run, and i believe the steelhead run is also in recent years been doing better. There are also some encouraging projects which appear to have some promise, such as the redfish lake project between noaa/ IDFG also some of the more recent estuary work being done like the projects on the stilly and snohomish. then theres also lots of work on increasing fish passage as well as removing several dams, these are mostly long term projects and will take years to become fruitful but ihope and believe that if we give the fish a chance they can return

In OR, we've had mixed results on reducing or eliminating hatchery fish from some sections of river in my area. Numbers are up, but not as much as hoped on my home river. Big conserns include the quality of the remaining habitat and the dissemination of disease. When populations are diminished and lose genetic diversity, they are more susceptible to disease and changes in weather/flow. A lot of the rivers also have major habitat problems like siltation of spawning gravel and lack of LWD/high water shelter. Reducing or eliminating the hatchery fish isn't a silver bullet.

I'd like to see, as a region, the assignment of some rivers as wild fish sanctuaries (wild, C&R only) and others as catch and keep (hatchery plant) rivers. It's an idea I heard from some fish bio's many years ago. ESA presents some obsticles, but doesn't necessarily preclude it.

As an aside, I fished SW WA just twice last season, both on the Kalama in November for coho/steelhead. Both times I caught a wild, chrome chinook and nothing else (there is no late hatchery fall chinook run on the K). I think STHDR1's point about hatchery fish diminishing the wild runs in SW WA is valid.

What is your "home river"?

The Clackamas.

Join CCA!!!

That would have a much better chance of being a positive move if the fish did not have to navigate through curtains of death on the way to those rivers.

Fishy

Another good idea made impossible by the infamous Nuts and Boldts.

I remember the Clack being stuffed with hatchery summer steelhead in the 90's...

The lower river was stuffed with them last year. I think I ate my last Clack summer steelhead about a month ago. I still have Deschutes summer steelhead in the freezer. I hear they are already showing up in fishable numbers this year (on the Clack)

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTXkkgx-lc[/video]

I think the biggest reason for reduced quantities of fish is due to overharvest. You can't take more than can produce. The biggest pig in the room is taking the most yet nobody cares because it is feeding them and won't care even if it disappears. The biggest pig is more than likely the commercial fisherman. Nobody is going to listen even if all resources disappear because they will just move on to the next thing. Sportfisherman (real fisherman who actually FISH) actually care but their voice can't be heard as well as the one who says "I just bought a Salmon for the barbeque". It's very hard for 10% of people to change the minds of 90% of people and it has been proven over and over.