If there are so few salmon that sport fisheries are being reduced or closed, why doesn’t ODFW simply raise more hatchery fish?
Due to the Endangered Species Act, fisheries in Oregon are generally constrained more by how many wild fish will be killed rather than how many fish are available overall. Increased production of hatchery fish may not lead to increased fishing opportunities, simply because wild fish are also encountered in fisheries, and impacts to those stocks must be limited in order to recover the populations. In most cases, ESA limitations would continue to constrain fishing opportunities, despite larger returns from increased production of hatchery fish.
