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I have always felt that introducing hatchery raised fish into the wild was a bad idea. I feel the release of large numbers of fish that are reared from a limited genetic stock just does not make sense, it will only end up diluting the genetics of the wild stock. If the stocking program was working I think there would be seeing a steady increase in WSB counts of smaller fish but I have not noticed that. The WSB fishing has been really good for many years now, especially when squid is around but these big fish are not hatchery raised. I would bet everything that these big fish are a direct result of AB 132 which was the bill that allowed CA voters to ban gill nets within 3 miles of the coast. I think the year was 1991 and this time line kind of fits what I'm seeing now and it seems like the fish just keep getting bigger.
Scripps pursuit of farm raising fish in the ocean is another slippery slope, they tried a few years back to get the permits to raise striped bass on the Mission Beach rockfish grounds known as the 270. Luckily their attempt failed, they would have ruined that place but they wanted to use the hard bottom to secure their anchors. If Scripps is attempting to revive their raising of fish off our coast I would be very concerned about were they are planning to do this.
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