Anyone else see this?

[Matt]

The thought is always that more fish released will directly correlate with higher returns. This is unfortunately not the case. Environmental and biological factors effect fish survival, and adding more fish to an already degraded spawning and rearing environment creates greater competition for a set proportion of spawning, rearing, and feeding resources. Increasing competition often decreases escapement. This seems counterproductive, but it has been proven time and time again with our current hatchery programs. There is a fine line that has to be toed to present the ideal amount of outmigrants to limit competition. The key limiting factor for survival is habitat. We are destroying the habitat faster than it can be repaired, and without habitat it doesn't matter how many fish we pump out. You can throw 50 fish into a swimming pool and you will always get the same result; 50 dead fish. The cost benefit analysis of brood stocking programs utilizing inadequate and degraded habitat types exposes an expensive and ineffective model. If anything, we should be raising and releasing herring and sand lance to promote natural ocean survival.