One needs to also look at the real numbers for interceptions versus what we use, or used to use, in models. The models told us that no US fish come down the east side of Vancouver Island. CWT data showed a great difference from that. The more north the PS stock, the more it was intercepted there. Plus, when they quit fishing chum up there for 4 years the Nooksack chum run exploded. Then, when they went back to fishing the numbers showed a decline.

There are a lot of games being played within management to keep fisheries open. If, as Rivrguy says, a judge finally grows even one, much less a pair, and shuts down the intercepting fisheries in AK then all hell will break loose. The God Squad will jump into action, I'm sure.

Beyond that, if Smalma is right that rivers like the Stilly simply can't support the spawners, then closing AK won't help much. We have to to a much more holistic view and look at the whole ecosystem. Those fish that survive in AK will need food (and it's not there as Chinook and coho are starving up there), they will need access to quality spawning grounds (coverts, dams, levees, floodplains), and they will need estuaries to make the transition in (pinnipeds, birds).