With all the wild systems seemingly going down the drain with their runs, perhaps it is time to stop blaming the hatcheries and their fish are causing harm. Perhaps whatever bad things in the ocean (such as the increased predation by the warm water species of Tuna & Mackerel brought up by the 'blob' and the poor nutrients in the warmer open ocean to support plankton, krill, anchovie, needle fish and herring), and the bad things that humans have done (such as all the netting, herring roe fisheries,, habitat destruction, pollution from environment & now nuclear plant etc.), it is time to realize that the mere wild fish population really can't sustain themselves anymore from such high rate of mortality. Perhaps in the past it will take 100 young fry to return 1 adult, and now it will take 300 to get 1 return. Of course I am using the numbers figuratively. But it reflects that something unfavourable is happening that unless we enhance the weakening systems, they will go down the drain in due time.
From another angle looking at it in an extreme way, if we cut off all hatchery enhancement, and that only the much smaller number of wild fry are making down the river and trying to make it to the ocean, do you think they have a much better chance to make it pass all the hungry predators, the pikeminnows, the mackeral & tuna plus the parasite attacks from the fish farms? Will they have better chance? I don't know but it seems logical to project that these hungry stomachs of the predators will find their fill from these wild stocks in the absence of the abundant hatchery fry, and that will be a disaster if it isn't a disaster already in the wild systems.
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Topic: 2018 Brood Capture Update. (Read 16941 times)