The way I see this in very simple terms is our fisheries ministries, both Federally and Provincially do not seem to put enough resources and energy into the protection of our wild stocks of steelhead, trout and salmon.
If they looked after the fish's habitat, the environment, stopped bad logging practices, some polluting mining sites, over fishing by all sectors, destroying many small feeder streams, the drawing off of excess water for irrigation purposes and finally have proper studies of what seems to many, the damage fish farm have done and are doing. Look at the damage caused in other countries where fish farms have been, well before they came to our waters.
If our wild stocks were better managed in the past and now we would not have to have had to get into having hatcheries in the first place.
Now, is it better to augment some of our rivers with hatchery fish or end up with no fish at all?
Now lets look at rivers where there is no fishing or just catch and release. Have these rivers increased their fish stocks? I donot think so, in most cases meaning there is other problems that are not being addressed. Of course some government bodies and others say its global warming. Is that just a convenient excuse to cover their neglect to our precious fish stocks?