Originally Posted By: Carcassman
Interestingly, the Green was managed for wild Chinook. Hatchery coho and there were no chum and pink. Then, because of the presence of unmarked hatchery fish, the escapement was lowered because they couldn't hit the initial one. And called it MSY.

That was a good reminder for me Carcassman. I was certain that all the Chinook in the South Sound Region of Origin (everything south of the Snohomish system) had been declared not viable for harvest management purposes in the initial PS Management Plan of 1977 & 1978, but that was not the case. You are right. (I actually got out my old "Blue Book" to check.) The Green River, the system with the mothers of all hatchery Chinook, was still considered a viable natural population. All the Chinook in the rest of S. Sound were also considered viable natural populations. Only Bellingham Bay and Skokomish River Chinook were declared non-viable right off the bat, a term the co-managers quickly got rid of because it made people (rightly) believe that they didn't care about these natural populations. The rest of the decisions dealing with population viability came later with the development of formal or informal regional management plans.