I fear, as a result, we could end up doing more harm than good and the harm we aare causing now could be forever. Let's start with the release of smolts to a wild river. As smolts, they are at the bottom of the food chain. In how many other cases, on land or in sea, has man ever intentionally bolstered the population of one member of a diverse ecosystem. On the Puntledge river is hatchery that releases thousands of smolts per year to the ocean.
Problem is, seal numbers of ballooned and some have gotten very smart.
They wait at the bottom of the river and gobble up anything that come their way. At one point there were more than forty that figured this out and many went as far as the hatchery to gobble up the smolts as they came out. They killed more than 30 or them now and are hoping a fence under a bridge will keep them away from the river. The hatchery closes and the predatory numbers are so high, they keep eating the fish. The hatchery here also only raises certain species of salmon - the ones we call endangered But knowing that many species of salmon often run together, what are the effects of added salmon on the other runs.