Ask yourself this: how in line with Conservative principle is it to spend public money to make fish that you then dump into the ocean so that private individuals can hoover up those public-owned fish and sell them for a profit?
There are some big differences, here. I am well aware that lake salmon are of poor quality, but the fish I am talking about are first generation, from wild, hatchery fish. And they are not raised for long in the hatchery before they are essentially put back in their wild environment.
The only difference between them and wild fish is antibiotics, a lack of parasites, and that they are fed instead of having to find their own food.
And granted, not having been raised *as much* in the wild, their attrition will be high, but they are still “wild”, not domestic, and much healthier than their wild competition.
And public funding is really not at issue, here, other than perhaps start up money. The fishermen themselves would co-op to pay for operations, as it is of direct benefit to them. That is, with no fishing limit other than luck, and far less government control, they can do what they want to do, fish.
If the season is awful, they can not release the pontoon fish, but haul them up in their net, then split the dividends to keep themselves economically viable until the next season.