There is mounting evidence that hatchery fish compete with wild fish for food and space. 43 Hatchery-released juveniles tend to be larger than wild juveniles, and comparatively more vulnerable to predators. Biologists think that flooding rivers with hatchery juveniles may increase predation on wild stocks, causing an adverse effect on wild juveniles. Large steelhead smolts released from hatcheries even eat smaller chinook smolts. The National Marine Fisheries Service even declared lower Columbia River coho extinct in part because of past hatchery operations.
Somebody needs to look at the larger picture.
When protecting one creek of salmon causes repercussions all the way to Alaska, somebody needs to think about whether this makes sense. We continue to apply absolutist protections that can never recover upriver runs, while maintaining huge hatchery operations that continue to extinguish wild stocks given continued heavy harvests. At the moment, the world is swimming in salmon. There is a glut of salmon in Alaska, with salmon prices plunging. There are salmon farms in Norway that flood the market with chinook salmon, being the best species to eat.