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IN ItllS StIUNU AKllllt Ut AN IMPORTANT TWt~PART SERIES, ONE OF AMERICA'S LEADING TROUT BIOLOGISTS REVEALS EXAMPLES OF HATCHERY EXCESS, THEN SUGGESTS WAYS TO WEAN OURSELVES AWAY FROM ARTIFICIAL HATCHERY DEPENDENCE-TOWARD STEWARI} SHIP OF THE NATURALLYSPAWNED RESOURCE. TOWARD WILD FISH. OGICAL MANAGF~°viF~~T he windowless meeting hall was stuffy on this spring afternoon at a fishery conference. We were crammed inside like trout in a hatchery raceway. The greens and yel- lows outside could turn thoughts to fishing, but we were attentive. A number-crunching professor flashed graph after graph on the screen, showing thatPacific salmon have steadily declined in the face of steadily increas- ing releases of hatchery fish. He chided a renowned aquaculturist, who, in re- sponse to concerns about the dwindled fish populations, had recently said for publication, "The technology isthere- just tell us how many you want." A team of physiologists reported on body function in wild and hatchery fish. Stress was a major concern. They re- vealedvast differences. A hatchery geneticist outlined genetic problems but tried to comznce us not to be concerned that interbreeding with hatchery fish would harm wild fish. He had theories but no supporting data. His neck stuck far outside his field when he glibly dismissed behavioral problems of hatchery fish as "learned, therefore curable." A state hatchery administrator ~l;`'. pleaded with us not to judge hatcheries by past performance. "I'm tired of hear- ing how bad hatcheries are. The com- plaints are based on how they were 10 or 20 years ago," he said. "People don't realize how much they've changed."He spoke of technical changes, not ofpost- planting performance. Apparently he didn't realize what the big problems of hatcheries are, nor that they're tougher than can be solved by internal tweakings. Apparently he didn't realize those prob- lems are based on the essence of what hatcheries must be: feed-lot hypercon- centrations of fish. Here was an advo- cate of hatcheries, defending them as facilities, not in terms of results. No talk of benefit, much less of harm. But to wind up the session, a state biologist talked about lack of benefits. He presented lesson after dismal les- son, showing failure of modern, large- scaleprograms ofartificial propagation in the United States and Canada. The point: By expanding its hatchery sys- tem, his agency could nowhere near fulfill the state legislature's recent or- der that salmon harvest be doubled by the year 2000. It was time for discussion with the audience. TROUT AUTUMN 1992