Bush's thoughts on salmon

[Lip Rip'r]

Didn't see this link on here yet,

Bush plan: Cut harvests to increase wild stocks of salmon

[Flush Release]

Wonder if this includes catch and release fishing also

[corrirod]

That's funny. Wasn't it just a few months ago that "Bush" wanted to consider taking salmon off the endangerd list because he felt all salmon, hatchery or native, were the same because there was no genetic proof they were different?

Seems contradictory that he wants to cut wild fish take now by closing hatcheries when above he believes hatchery fish are genetically the same?

So which is it?

[ron m]

The new salmon policy doesn't make much sense to me. If dams kill most of the fish that are killed or if dams keep adult salmon from getting to spawning grounds, then cutting the amt. taken by fishermen will barely prolong the time till extinction. Especially since population growth WILL lead to less habitat for salmon and a general degradation of the environment, including for salmon. If that's correct, then the best that could be said about the new policy is that it's misguided. Cynics will be much less generous when evaluating the policy. I view it as typical of the disrespect the Bush administration has for science.

The queston of hatcheries is more complicated for me. It's not easy to see how the adult hatchery salmon we catch in the ocean are any less able to survive than wild fish. I did read something recently about how hatcheries originally used eggs/milt from the first of the returning fish instead of from fish that returned over the entire span of time the samon return to spawn. That has an effect when we have big storms that wash out the creeks and rivers.

ron m