Yuji Sakuma wrote:

Presumably, hatchery fish are
being released into west coast rivers in an attempt to restore or increase
runs that are considered to be in decline.

That is the "rationale" advanced by some--mostly by those with a vested
interest in the hatchery business or in the industries destroying
habitats necessary for wild fish--but it's a ruse. The preponderance of
evidence now is that the hatchery fish are just one more threat to the
survival (much less the recovery) of wild fish stocks.

http://www.nativefishsociety.org/docs/Biblio/bib.htm

The real reason hatchery fish are being released into west coast
fisheries is to keep fishermen lulled and happy while the wild fish
disappear. Natural resource management by fait accompli.

If hatchery fish reproduce in
the wild after their release, as I believe they do,

They will, which is why they should be killed before they can.

it seems to me to make
just as much sense to release hatchery steelhead as it does to release wild
steelhead. I repeat, this is not a criticism - I am curious as to the
rationale for releasing wild fish but not hatchery fish.

Wild steelhead (and salmon) are an integral part of what makes the PNW
unique. Hatchery fish are cheap toys that (if they must exist at all)
should be played with, then broken.

JR