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The threshold of adverse crowding will have to be researched. When found. it might be so low that applying it would make hatcheries hopelessly impracti- cal. A WEANING PROCESS Irospects for improving hatcheries and stocking are good, partly because many of the programs have been so bad. As explained above, downsizing to plant more moderate numbers of fish should be part of the reform. Eliminating se- verely wastefiil hatcheries and reducing production in others should probably be a weaning process. Public hatchery programs are so enu•enched, and some segments of societ<• are so dependent on their output, uneconomic as it may now be, that reduction may need to be slow to avoid "painful dislocations" of careers and local economies. As hatch- eryprograms are cut back, much of the money saved and all of the jobs atfi•cted can be switched to habitirt protection/ restoration and to harvest regulation. Some of the money can be used to temporarily compensate commercial fishers for not fishing, while wild stocks recover. The same can be done for com- mercial recreation businesses such as charter-boat operations that may now depend on hatchery stocks. At the 1991 Nanaimo symposium on wild and hatchery salnumids, James A. Lichatowich and Jay ~ti'. Nicholas held that fishery management is not sU•ictly a biological process but also invokes human values and expectations. They prodded a lesson of management fail- ure.Although the past cenntn's expec- tation was that hatcheries could maintain supplies ofcoho and Chinook salmon against all odds in Oregon coastal streams, the total adult run of cuho and Chinook is now only a frac- tion ofwhatitwas in the pre-abuse past_ Lichatowich and Nicholas concluded that "if you don't harvest rationally and protect habititt, hatcher}' production cannot make up for it.." This is just what other researchers are finding. The attention to values and expecta- tions is basic. To properly manage, that is, protect and restore wild stocks, we will have to work with the fish and their habitat, yes, but also give plenT< of ef- fort tochanging human knowledge and attitudes-creating broader under- A LONG AND POMPOUS BUZZ WORD ".Sup~lynaetata.tinn " is the long and pompous buzz word for a new approach in hatchery and stocking programs. It holds promise for raising the suni~°aI of stocked-fish and being Ic°ss harmful to wild populations but is fraught with problems. Supplementation means the artificial propagation and stocking of locally adapted juvenile fish into the natural environment to increase wild, naturally spawning pol~xtlations. This admirable. intent conU~asts with tradi- tional fish propagation anti stocking, which has usually used fish that were not locally adapted, and which often has been eminently unsuccessful in hav- ing fish survive long enough to repro- duce naturally. Ikev features of supplementation are (1'} use of wild fish exclusively as the source of eggs and sperrr.~ f~n• the hatch- ery, (2 j holding the hatcl~~c dyoungonly a short time in artificial rearing facili- ties, and (.i) rele~>wsing them into the natural nursery waters of their parents. This is intended to maintain genetic integrirt-, reduce phvsiol~~gic, anatomi- cal and beha~ior-al crippling, and let the artificialh hatched fish lire most of the juvenile stage in natural streams (or for some kinds of fish, in lakesl, so they can be better adapted for sur~iyal as adults and play proper roles in the eco- system. Some of the fish are expected to eventually spawn nautrally, thus pro- ducing progeny better a~~lapted to per- forming in the natural environment than are oi~fspring of those traditional hatchery tish drat do survive to spawn in the wild. Involved itt supplementa- tion are other measures for selecting and pairing parents to reduce genetic problems, but the above is an outline. standing and concern about wild fish and howthev maintain themselves. Eco- nomics, aesthetics and biological integ- rity and stability are sure to be the ben eh ts. WHAT REALLY COUNTS Z1hat really counts in fishen~ man- agement is the resource-the gild fish and their habi tat. That is what we should focus on. The fishery would prosper if we could keep the good of the resource uppermost in mind and effort. Long- In some respects supplementatiot reform to past fish cultural met that were lost in the technical driy internal efl7ciency and conyenien Supplementation may sound I but, when you hear it used. be su find out what is realh~ meant and the intent is. The concept is c n~~isted. For-example, the~akintalt erv scheme is touted as supplcm~ lion. But it turns ottt that the vc salmon and stcelhead are to be and artificially fed in rearing pond as long as in ordinary artificial prof lion. 'Tlrev won't be released su~eams until they are ready to s~t~i sea. This is to be crone because habit`tt of much of the su~eam s~st< so abused that pre-smolt _jtn-ei couldn't sur4iye normally in it. ;L this is so, then how can lire "sul ment~ttion"be expected to increase natural spawning and result in r wild progeny in this case the tct perhaps being used as a facade to mote hatchery constt~nction. Even in true supplementation, at n~~o of the old hatchery drtw-backs l ably can't be avoided: crowding our inabilit•• to mate fish in ways simulate nantral selection_ Court competition is fierce and is impot in maintaining proper traits in populations. Moreover, the spaw act of cront or sahnrnt often invol~ fen~ak~ and two males-the com tiye winner and a genetically impor "sneak" that siuutltaneoush fern the. eggs from the side of ttte fet that is opposite the: one occupie the winner. The impact of not h able to duplicate these conditiot not vet. known, btu some scientists peel it is significant. ^ term social and economic benefits flow ft'orn the resource, iF it is understood and conserved. Sometimes, however, the resource is held secondary to man- agementtechniques, to established prcr grams, to careers, and to personal political agendas-which tend to be devoted largely to rapid exploitation for quick benefit. C'ndersland, frrotect and restate might be the by-words of ecological fishery management. It is natural habitat and wild fish populations that need to be Contiirued oat f~ic!,rv }-! AUTti~t\ 1992 'rROC"f