Yeah, it is a little complicated topic. I did it to suggest as an idea for the paradigm shift that can possibly be a start of solving the problem. Though I am not an expert to share rich scientific details on the issue, let me explain a little more on where I am coming from that may respond better to your comments.
The following is one of the articles that I mentioned on the news of striper hatching and stockings in NC and SC;
NEW Striped Bass Stocking Effort Aims to Restore Population
I think it just started last year in NC to be a well known news. The main point I want to explain is that the state is not breeding and releasing the striper stocks from elsewhere, but from its own breeders caught on that particular spawning ground, so it is as natural as possible, other than the artificial fertilization part and farming the stock from a couple of days to a few months for the better survival rate of these millions of baby (fry and fingerlings) stripers. I bet there will be trials and errors of running these types of programs (like the west coast salmons you mentioned) for highly migratory species such as stripers.
Nonetheless, it is a good start. The key is the artificial fertilization, because without it, we have to wait only until the good spawning year to happen naturally, like 2015 for the north east stripers. But this happens far between and we never know when the next one is happening. It will get only harder with dwindling striper stocks ( so the number of breeders). That is the reason why we have to do this, even though the majority of these fish will be caught commercially before reaching the spawning age. Not all will be caught and at least some will reach back to the ground to spawn naturally or artificially again. And that will all be surplus. If it is repeated in a year after a year, the entire stock will be rebuilt and much more before you know it.
This was how some of the troubled species were restored in Korea. One of them is the Pacific cod fishery. There is an island in the southern peninsula, called Geojedo. It is Block Island to New England area, the best known cod breeding ground in Korea. Some even said the 90% of Korean cod fish stock bred there. So, like the old days in the ledge of Block island, all the cod fish boats in Korea congregated in front of the island during the 3 months of every spawning season and eventually wiped out the fishery, close to an extinct level. One large cod was hovering $1-200 at that time, as it was a very sought after and an already expensive fish. Finally, the government and the island fishermen made a coalition and started to breed and release cod fingerlings more and more every year. And the fishery restored only after a handful years and further rebounded in such a way ever seen before. It even created a recreational cod fishery. Charter boat fishing for cod has been booming in Korea not only near the island, but in the entire eastern seaboard (over 300 miles).
There are limitless options to run and expand these stocking programs. For example, when (if) the artificial fertilization is not a problem anymore and it can hatch at a higher rate, the state/agency can give a away fingerlings or sell at lower price to aquaculture farmers to grow the fish that can further decrease the commercial fishing pressure. Or you can even delegate the hatching and releasing duties to private aqua-farmers for the exchange of farming permits or the rental of public waterways etc.
Aside from these natural stockings, I believe encouraging and pushing for more aquaculture; farming of highly demanded (thus pressured) fish species, is where the answer only lies. Otherwise, you have to catch/supply the commercial demands from the wild. And it is simply not sustainable to regulate the need with the growth of population and seafood interests. Cod, tuna, striper, seabass and flounder... It is eventually going to happen to every specie. unless we get it else where. That's only in farming the fish . And US is in the bottom of fish farming science and business in the world. We are just too used to catch everything from wild with powerful boats and technologies.
Let me give you a final example before ending this. All live flounders in the fish tank you see in big Asian markets in across US are farmed fish from Asia. Those are put to sleep with acupuncture needles and transported by air. When the needles are taken out, the fish swim immediately in the tank. It is pretty amazing. Anyway, since the farming of flounders became so successful - one of the first and easiest fish to farm years ago in Korea ( sorry to keep on giving Korean examples, but that's one other country that I am very familiar with), there are very few commercial boats that specifically target wild flounders unless it is by catch. Wild flounders are still more expensive but not that much to offset the cost of catching them. Because of it, with the flounder stock flourishing, catching doormats have become much easier and abundant recreationally. It is crazy to see how rapidly it has transformed and increased the recreational fishing industry in Korea. It was unthinkable just 10-15 years ago. The reason I am putting the time and writing this in length, hoping to see the glory days again when I can take my children and grand children to Montauk to experience incredible cod fishing or just to Sheepshead Bay or Rockaway for amazing flounder fishing I experienced back in the day.
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