Cowichan Chinook

[Reel Knotty]

I wish as soon as the salmon finally make it to any river that they are left alone to spawn but nope they have to spear and wound hundreds of fish or better yet put a net across it man its the 21 century time to move on, I can respect the heritage and traditions but when they want to kill it off then what are they going to do???When its gone they wont be able to carry on with there traditions. to me thats very sad !!!!!
Wolf

Very well said.

 

[chris73]

Terry; you are right that the hatchery process of randomly mixing the mating partners takes away from the natural mate selection process. However, what happens in nature is not that much different when you think of it. The strongest female and male will eventually occupy and protect the prime spawning bed and so get a little head start for their brood as they probably face the least risk of suffocating or falling dry during the egg/larvae stage. But this is already tainted by the fact that usually 1 or 2 other males co-fertilize the egg mass released by the female so that this entire brood will actually be a mix of multiple genes. Hatcheries usually mirror this effect by using milt of 2 or 3 males for one batch of eggs. And in nature, a lot of the weaker males and females will get their chance to spawn too - but maybe not in the prime spots - that's all. Only if nature has an overabundance of what the river can hold in terms of spawning fish then the weaker specimen will not get their chance. So all in all the lack of natural mate selection will actually not play a significant role in distinguishing wild from hatchery fish. Where the hatchery pampering will make a huge difference in fitness is firstly the egg stage where wild eggs are exposed to floods and predation by fish and birds while hatchery eggs lay safe in trays, and secondly the fry stage where hatchery fry get conveniently and sufficiently fed every day in a safe environment while their wild brothers have to find and fight for a way less abundant amount of food under constant threat of being eaten themselves. Here the wild survival can be as low as 1% while 95% survival in the hatchery is common. But nature will catch up with this skewed ratio as soon as this huge mass of hatchery smolts is released in the wild. From this moment on the hatchery pampered salmon face the same natural selection as their wild and fewer brothers and quickly their number is greatly reduced as most of the weaker and smaller smolts get weeded out. So I think after this slaughter of hatchery releaslings and their combined journey through the Pacific, whatever salmon gets back to the natal stream is part of the fittest group - no matter what origin - wild or hatchery. At the end of the cycle they are equal. So as long as you have sufficient specimen to begin the hatchery process without running the danger of breeding only brothers and sisters with each other (cousins or further related are fine) then a well managed hatchery program will benefit any stream with stock deficiencies. I agree, however that a healthily populated stream should be left alone but how many of those do we still have?

BTW, I won't be around for the Xmas get together, Terry. We will have to catch up another time.

 

[Roe Bags]

Put a Robertson Creek type hatchery in the upper Cowichan. Load the system up with Chinook, Coho, Summer and Winter steelhead. I'm tired of the drive to Port Alberni...

 

[Reel Knotty]

Put a Robertson Creek type hatchery in the upper Cowichan. Load the system up with Chinook, Coho, Summer and Winter steelhead. I'm tired of the drive to Port Alberni...

And use Kenai River and Rivers Inlet brood stock

 

[highlights]

Agreewith RB, they need to do something serious up there. It's a much nicer river to fish in my opinion.

 

[Charlie]

You might want to go back and review 'Chris73' comments?

 

[Lipripper]

Yeah but.... how many of those 1200 ish fish to you take for a RC style hatchery?