Yes, I would completely. I think what is needed, especially in the upper Fraser, are conservation-focused hatcheries. This isn't about getting as many fish in the bin as you can and setting them all free at the exact same size, at the exact same time. I think what we need is a more natural approach, not only to ensure that we can get a boost in the population but also to ensure that we're not impacting diversity, especially given that some of these populations are so small.
In some areas, they've tried, and they're looking into a multi-stage release. This would include releasing them, actually digging fake redds or salmon nests in the river, planting some eyed eggs so that they can transition naturally without any predators, and releasing some at the unfed fry stage and at the fry and smolt stages as well.
There are also a variety of things you can do within the facility to ensure that you are taking a more natural approach. A lot of the things we raise salmon in don't look natural. We use big aluminum troughs. You can integrate some habitat into that, adding some different colours by painting the inside of the thing, while ensuring, as much as possible, that you're not interacting with the fish.
When you hand-feed the fish—and I can speak to this from our experience over the last couple of years—eventually they almost become pets. They get used to you. When I would go in and look over a trough when they were expecting food, they'd all rise to the top and get excited, because that meant dinnertime. However, last year we used auto feeders, and right up until release I could not get those fish to come to me. That was a bit sad for me, but I knew it was better for the fish.
It's little things like this that we need to integrate into these conservation-focused hatcheries. Just blasting out as many fish as possible is not going to give us the result we want, as Mr. Donnelly said, and that's been proven in multiple facilities.