Poll - Can Northwest Fishing Survive With No Hatchery Fish?

[Chinook SSSF]

There is a river in California, I belive it is the Matole? Anyway it is soley C&R and there is absolutly no hatchery impact. This river has one of the best runs of steelhead in the area. This should serve as an example for other areas.

I have been to Matolle, its a 24 mile drive through the mountains on a winding dirt road, somewhere about halfway between Cresent City and San Fransico.

There was a steelhead goldrush here in the 80's, thats how the word of this hidden little river got out. Reports of drift boats being shot at by locals even made the waves. The Matolle is about the size of the Elk River. An amazing feet really considering California's dry summers and lack of water. Like many other small california streams it is believed that the smolts from these rivers spend very little time in the river itself. Tidal area restoration and catch and release regulations are the key in future success of those small California streams.

Oddly it is groups of tree huggers that have fought the most to save the spawning habitat in the upper Matolle, but logging continues even now.




I would also like to metion that it is my opinion that this is exactly the type of stream that should be managed for wild only........Or we get the Necanicum effect......


....

[doubleventuri]

In my opinion even a catch and relese only fishery wouldnt work, as much as I wish it were possible I guess I dont have enough faith in mankind; (poachers); and gillnets kill/injure everything they touch. Eventually I believe >90% of anadromous fish runs would at the least have unfishable return numbers, if any at all.

[Ed Fast]

Seamslayer,

Interesting,

some rivers it does just as the 'Matole' you mentioned. Others it (wild fish only management) hasn't done squat! There are many examples. One would be the Smith down at the Umpqua. There are others, too. Very confusing. Once you think you got it figured out, you hear about other examples where it just ain't so. I wish it were simple.

Ed

[goatcheezers1]

The Northwest is a large place if you think about it. I think it would survive above washington, but oregon and southern washington would be questionable to say the least. Especially with the number of dams on the columbia among other factors such as industrial diversion.

[Chinook SSSF]

I think the money is what I think about the most. Wild fish restoration has to be funded by something. IM all for grassroots local basin by basin assitance but so far the state has not been very willing to let anyone but themselves manage the systems. It has been tried over the years but seen as a bad idea without supervision of the bio's. Remember the S.T.E.P. program? That was a consorted effort to get the public involved and was geared to raising smolts in boxes for release. Something of that nature would be needed once again, not to raise fish but mostly to monitor the health of rivers after the incoming budget needs become more constrained.

IM just not exactly sure what would happen under a wild fish only model. Are we poised now with better land/water management knowledge to take on the role reversal of rolling back over to wild only that now would sustain a harvest? If so that model could infact work since our plantings in the 80' and 90's are known to be crossbasin and wanton at best. Could we do a better job of trying this model now and still have cake to eat?

There is nothing in my mind that can ever see all hatchery fish gone or removed but the bulk of those fisheries will continue to be mostly in larger areas known for the industry itself in another decade such as the lower Columbia to Bonniville or the Willamette River [plans now {safe for salmon} to remove 300,000 hatchery fish from Willamette fishing interests/move them to youngs bay commercial] or even heavy ocean coho production that the federal governement loves so much they will even pay for it. I have recently heard the thought of a wild fish only model described as a political petting zoo. Not sure I totaly agree with that statement but I do agree that wild fish do need our sportfishing dollars and those dollars, well alot of them, come from guys like you and me who do want to bonk a few fish each year for the table.



Poll closed. Thanks for your input in the poll : )