It is my belief that actual ecological recovery of the river will occur on the Klamath before the Elwha. Most of the reasons are geographical and management. I believe that CA is wholly responsible for the management. Not Co, so only one decision-maker which means failure is easy to assign. The second, and even more important, is that I don't think the Klamath salmon are anywhere near as impacted by BC and AK as are Elwha. They may not even be too heavily impacted by WA so that most of the meaningful ocean mortality is dealt with by just CA and OR. A simpler system that again has fewer players so "blame" is easier to assign. Can't spread the s**t around as far.
Interesting observation. But I disagree. Somewhat.
The Elwha watershed upstream of the Elwha Canyon is located in a National Park. The habitat is as close to pristine as exists anywhere outside of Alaska. Not so on the Klamath. The habitat will once again become accessible on the Klamath, but the quality remains questionable.
The issue you raise seems to focus on harvest. And on that point, I agree. Harvest of Elwah River salmon is exceedingly complex. Harvest occurs throughout its range in the ocean, including in the Gulf of Alaska, the BC Coast and the Sekiu fishery. So if the Elwha River salmon can escape the gauntlet of fishing boats (and that’s a big if), the habitat they return to is as good as it gets.
I’m not sure if it’s possible to reduce harvest on Elwha River salmon since they cross a multitude of jurisdictional boundaries, but if so, that is the only factor that could limit their recovery.
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