Idaho's Northwest Power Planning Council member, Mr. Mike Field, stated he couldn't agree with a sport fishing season for hatchery steelhead because fishermen would kill wild steelhead while fishing for the hatchery bred fish. Evidently Mr Field's priorities for restoration are in the wrong place. Adding insult to injury, NMFS claims this permit Will Not Jeopardize the Future Existence of the Species. Idaho's politicians endorse this ridiculous claim. Documents entitled Impacts of Artificial Salmon and Steelhead Production Strategies in the Columbia Basin, are misnamed.
Hatcheries are a benefit.
Steelhead and salmon runs once numbered approximately 16 million adult fish annually. Spawning and rearing habitat losses are surely responsible for a portion of the loss of wild fish, but the federal dams are solely responsible for the loss of about 11 million adult fish each year. A promise made to the citizens of the nation was that the dams could be built without a net loss to the salmon. Hatcheries were built to replace the loss caused by the dams. But the dams have proven so lethal hatcheries can't begin to provide for the losses.