Hook, Line, & Sinker

LOCATION : EAGLE CREEK, OREGON 

MATERIALS : FISH HOOK, LINE, VESICULAR BASALT, & CEDAR TREE

"The Eagle Creek hatchery was authorized under the Mitchell Act of May 1938, as amended in 1946. The purpose of the hatchery was to help compensate for anadromous (migrating to the ocean from fresh water) salmonid losses in the Columbia River basin due to mainstem Columbia River dams. The hatchery continues to operate under the original authorization, rearing and releasing anadromous salmon to support commercial, sport, ocean and river fisheries and to restore salmonids in watersheds in which they have become extinct."
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Hook, line, and sinker is a phrase used to emphasize that someone has been completely deceived or tricked and the fish hatcheries are a perfect example. The hook, line, and sinker with hatchery raised fish suggests that we can meet the supply and demands of human consumption by raising more fish in non natural environments. The hope is to restore the fish populations that is the result of over fishing and the destruction of fish habitat and hydrological systems.

Hatcheries not only breed disease, but they also raise juvenile fish that are not raised in a natural environment so once they are released into the rivers they are not physically or mentally prepared. Hatchery fish are better then farmed fish which never make the journey from the spawning grounds in a tributary stream, to the rivers, which flow to the ocean.    

Hatchery fish also compete with wild salmon for food and have the ability to mate with wild salmon creating a genetically inferior species. The hook, line, and sinker in the restoration of salmon populations is more about meeting human demands then providing fish with healthy natural environments in which they live and eventually die as they spawn to create new generations.