On Friday 19 October 2001 09:37 am, Don Shearer rambled unforgivingly: > Hi, > > A quick question regarding this story. Why do they have a hatchery to > begin with? If there is a fear they will breed with "wild" fish and they > do not let anglers fish for the hatchery fish why have a hatchery?
Hatchery production has shifted in the last few years to many hatcheries doing wild fish enhancement. They will take selected wild stock, artifically fertilize and raise them, then return them to the river that they originated from in order to help boost wild populations. But currently the runs contain hatchery fish from the previous era, which are genetically and physically inferior to the wild fish. Fishing for the hatchery fish is a way of removing them from the gene pool, so that the wild fish genes are not weaked by these seriously inbred mutants from hell. Rob -- Rob Blomquist Kirkland, WA
