On the topic of sorting through way too many unclipped fish to get two clipped fish... I think this is one way propping up commercial fisheries with hatcheries has hurt wild fish that doesn't get talked about much. Without commercial fisheries to feed, there would be no need for salmon hatcheries. In order for commercial fisheries to produce the levels of catch that keep everyone paid and the market satiated, the wild runs need supplementation. Mixing hatchery and wild stocks creates all sorts of management challenges associated with maximizing harvest of hatchery fish while avoiding overexploiting the wild stocks. In theory, it should be easy for recs to avoid taking too many wild fish, but in practice, it's far from simple or efficient, and it creates a situation that's bad for everyone, most notably the fish. I think we can all agree that C&R-ing 20 salmon in a day is a lot of fun; that's not the issue. The problem is that, by the numbers, 10 of those released coho won't make it. That's 8 more wild fish dead than would have been had the angler been allowed to retain the first two.

The other thing that makes this wrong-headed is that it's the ocean fishery (the rec fishery that accounts for the majority of the sport harvest share) where this is happening. It's the worst possible scenario for preserving wild coho. I sincerely believe that going to a kill your first two coho rule in the salt would be an immense, immediate lift to numbers of wild coho returning to spawn. Who knows? Maybe, given time, the wild fish saved (coupled with stopping development along river banks) would lead to better wild productivity, potentially eliminating the need to plant hatchery fish. (Do we have a pipe dream emoji?)