hakaimagazine.com
Great read.........thank you......"Return to the river".....read that book numerous times!The Hatchery Crutch: How We Got Here | Hakai Magazine
From their beginnings in the late 19th century, salmon hatcheries have gone from cure to band-aid to crutch. Now, we can’t live without manufactured fish.
media.oregonstate.edu
Lot of good themes there .. The push for habitat enhancement and restoration of habitat are long term objectives . But if we want salmon and trout , then hatcheries and proper fisheries management and habitat rehab are key. I dont buy into the repetitive Hatcheries are BAD theme. I have seen too many small hatcheries that have brought streams alive after poor fishing practices and habitat loss ( urbanization , agricultural, and forestry ) led to the extinction of native stocks. Some times it comes down to what do you want ? Hatchery fish or NO fish. ? The mantra of the BCFDF is one that I support fully .. " Not necessarily hatcheries, but hatcheries where necessary. " BTW Deryk-- I guess you spotted the pic of the coho male that was labeled as a chinook ?? LOL
Nothing against volunteers they are great and are a huge part of helping the fisheries however having people who's job it is to focus on restoration would be best. Volunteers do what they can but when you have a job and life its impossible to put in what a professional working full time could. DFO and the province should be investing in this side of the fishery the money would be well spent, there are many people with boots on the ground that aren't in the fishing community with degrees and areas of expertise that could do a lot of good for fish habitat if our government would only put focus on rebuilding stocks rather than watching them tank. DFO's only solution is to stop recreational fishing which has little benefit for stocks and divides us from some of the great people outside the recreational fishing community that have the same goals as us. Buddy next door that volunteers to help you fix your motor is great but the guys who do it professionally every day would likely do a better job and faster. The big difference is our government can afford professionals for the same reason we might not be able to afford professionals, all our taxes. I'm not saying giving tax dollars to non governmental organizations but actual jobs with DFO creating a department focused on restoration without influence from any special interest groups. Our government has no problem spending hundreds of millions on oil spill prevention boats and crews that aren't actually going to be able clean a spill anyways, why not spend a fraction of that on declining salmon which are the most important reason to have spill prevention in the first place.
sad fact is if current trends continue in the long term we will have no salmon fisheries with or without hatcheries. All hatcheries can do is pump young salmon into the ocean via the rivers. If current trends of climate change and population growth in our area continue the salmon released will not survive to return as adults.
psf.ca
I look forward to seeing the reportInvestigating Hatchery Effectiveness | Pacific Salmon Foundation
Hatcheries were first built on the West Coast in Canada and the U.S. in the late 19th century. Salmon runs were already declining. Today, hundreds of hatcheries pepper the Pacific Northwest’s coasts and rivers. In British Columbia, hatcheries release approximately 300 million juvenile Pacific...
