Prove me wrong then? Countless amounts of data if you look deep enough that supports my statement.
Keith
Happy to chat with you about it when we are shooting.
The data and studies I'm looking at seem to squarely point the finger at upriver and estuary habitat loss as the largest threats and reasons of a declining (stable at best) wild winter steelhead populations on the EFL.
I would wager a large sum of money that if the studies were done today a new, easily identified threat would be the top culprit, or at least a high contender to the loss/destruction of habitat. The Ocean.
The Ocean and ocean conditions are currently not favorable to a steelhead and a lot of the salmonid species.
Unless I'm missing something, the current data isn't showing any type of significant rebounding effect for the EFL.
It's not crashing in the tank either....but seems to be chugging long at a neutral state with periods of high and low escapement.
Maybe these documents are Fake News.
https://www.ezview.wa.gov/Portals/_1962/...DFW_Feb2019.pdfhttps://nativefishsociety.org/watersheds/east-fork-lewisHistorical escapement data says anywhere from 1,000-11,000 seems to fit "the norm".
Escapement goal is 875 wild winter runs.
Look a the escapement graphs. No where close to 11,000 fish....and seems to hang right around the 800 mark and meets escapement.
That just tells me the river isn't outright dying. Not rebounding significantly.
I'm not an advocate for hatchery steelhead, but making blanket statements about how a few hatchery strays and or some magical spawning bed competition and/or hatchery/wild co-mingling in the spawning beds is by far *not* the largest threat to an EFL wild steelhead.
Can flat out guarantee that with absolutely no hatchery turds in the EFL now and in the future, you're never going to see 11,000 returning wild winter runs to that river...... You're never going to see 5,000...or 2,500......
You may see another 1,400 and you're probably going to see sub-800 numbers are well.