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Fishing for Answers, I have a question :

Steelhead studies are frequently cited to show that hatchery fish are inferior to wild fish.  Yet state programs admittedly rear hatchery steelhead to be different.  For example, “In Washington State, the approach to management of wild and hatchery steelhead trout Oncorhynchus mykiss has been to separate the timing of return and spawning by the two groups through selective breeding for early timing in hatchery fish.” – Mackey, Mclean, and Quinn, 2001, North American Journal of Fisheries Management.  Is it scientifically honest to purposely rear hatchery fish to be different from wild fish, then publish and continually cite studies that find and blame differences between hatchery and wild fish on the hatchery environment rather than on the managers who designed the hatchery program(s)?

posted 2 years ago
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