The stupid has struck again! Greenies are going after hatcheries in an “effort” to “save the native fish.”
From
Columbia River releases are small in comparison to releases elsewhere along the Pacific Rim – Alaska and Japan produce more than 1.5 billion smolts annually (mainly chum salmon in Japan, and pink and chum salmon in Alaska).
Think about that for a bit.
About 80% of the fish that return into the Columbia River are Hatchery fish. So can someone explain to me please how hindering hatcheries abilities to produce more and more fish will help anyone?
Oh wait! The natives right? Hatchery fish hurt them or some weird fantasy like that? Well, while you’re explaining to me why less fish in the river is a good thing, feel free to also explain how fish that were all on the brink of extinction, have all had a massive comeback since the 70s, and, since hatcheries have been going for about 100 years or so now, how do we have ANY native fish anymore whatsoever!?
Let’s not forget that hatcheries have gone above and beyond to “assist” native fish in their attempted comebacks. Even to the point of stopping plants in certain rivers and streams to make them exclusively native. Yet, the native populations remain relatively stagnant.
Thanks to hatchery programs by natives in eastern Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, upriver coho salmon that were once truly extinct, are now thriving in the hundreds of thousands.
People say that hatchery fish are defective too don’t they? That if they were to intermingle with native fish that they would produce an inferior species. Yet they seem to only thrive and grow the populations wherever they are planted.
I have caught hundreds of wild, and hatchery fish and I can tell you without a doubt that one could not tell the difference between them on the line, or on the plate.
We who reside in the realm of reality, understand that the native fight is one purely of emotion. Why not? I get it! Everyone wants to preserve a little something here and there. But at what point do we stop playing games and just start flooding our rivers with fish!?
The alternative is less fish! Otherwise you would have to shut down the commercial fisherman, which won’t happen… remember? We tried that! What else are you going to do? Piss off a million or so anglers who keep getting their seasons cut short already? Probably not going to fly either.
I know people always need a cause and that those who yell and cry the loudest will always get the spotlight and the most attention. But there’s a lot more of us out there and nobody wants us to start putting up a ruckus.
How bout we do the right thing and do what Alaska and Japan are doing. Let’s have a million fish going through the snake and into Canada! Why not!! Maybe people will stop complaining about the commercial fisherman and the sea lions so much.
One last thing to ponder:
Notice how the article plays on your emotions in that last line. Do you REALLY think that Orcas are picky about whether or not a salmon has its adipose fin or not? If they REALLY cared about the orcas, they would be telling the hatcheries to produce as much as possible and even advocate for the building of new hatcheries wherever possible.
It’s just common sense!