Fisheries should instead be conducted in the tributaries that have runs which can support harvest. The National Marine Fisheries Service is particularly unjust in its allocation of the conservation burden when ocean and mainstem Columbia River fisheries can harvest listed Snake River salmon and steelhead while the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes can not harvest those very same fish once they return to the Salmon River. The National Marine Fisheries Service is wrong to conclude that that there are only two roles for hatcheries. These are good roles for hatcheries. However, the most important role for hatcheries is to use them to rebuild wild fish populations.
Scientists call it supplementation.
There are appropriate ways to use hatchery-origin fish and release them into wild areas for those fish to return to rebuild the listed wild populations. The NMFS is wrong to use genetics as the overriding factor in impeding the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes from pursuing the production actions that the Tribes have successfully initiated. Many of the wild areas no longer contain any fish, so even if the NMFS is correct with their genetics theories, it would be a moot point. We can no longer manage for genes, and need instead to manage for fish. The Recovery Strategy needs to aggressively pursue supplementation of listed fish with available hatchery-origin stocks.