Fishy -
Again having increased interest in kokanee is not going to make a difference to the potential problem at the Lake Whatcom hatchery. The issue is that if anadromous fish gain access to the river above the Lake Whatcom water intake there is the very real potential of those fish bring one of several very nasty virus to the system. If salmon gain access to that portion of the basin current (and prudent) disease policies would require that all individuals in the brood stock be tested to insure they are virus free before eggs/fry can be transferred or planted in other watersheds.
Because of the massive number of fish spawned every year at that hatchery complete testing is a virtual physical and economic impossibility. Currently with the long history of the kokanee brood stock being disease fry the State only has to test a 100 or so (don't recall the exact number) of the brood fish every year. Because the Whatcom kokanee are so small they have a low fecundity (only a little over 250 eggs/females). That means that depending on how large the program egg take is between 50,000 to more than 100,000 adult kokanee are spawn every year at Whatcom and each would need to be tested.
If all the fish tested are diseased free then the fish can be planted as they have been in the past. However if there are positive tests they no planting (eggs buried) ala the current steelhead situation Quillayute.
Regarding the popularity of kokanee fishing. I'm not sure than many folks realize how popular kokanee fishing all ready is. The last WDFW angler preference survey in 2002 -
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/papers/2002_survey_resident_anglers/2002_survey_resident_anglers.pdffound that 30% of the State's anglers had fished for kokanee at least once the previous year. That compares favorably to some other species - for example 42% had fished for salmon, 31% had fished for bass and 24% had fished for winter steelhead.
That same study found that 4% of the anglers considered kokanee their most preferred species to fish for for. Again that compares with the % reported for other species - winter steelhead 6%, bass 10%, sturgeon 3%, panfish 3%.
Again the preference survey was in 2002 and at least locally on Stevens it is my observation is that kokanee interest has increase significantly since then.
BTW - Even though derbies are not my thing and I will not be fishing the derby (good news for those that are -LOL) I do wish those putting the derby on and those that do fish it a successful event and a good time by all.
tight lines
Curt