Since raising hatchery steelhead in Grays Harbor looks like pouring money down a rat hole for the foreseeable future since we cannot fish for them, perhaps we should petition WDFW to switch to raising hatchery sea run cutthroat. There are some advantages. There is precedent, as they have been doing it on the Cowlitz for over 60 years. The resulting fishery could be mark selective so as not to over-harvest wild cutthroat. Sea run cutthroat don't migrate to the high seas where steelhead survival has been so poor the last couple decades. And sea run cutthroat are doing quite well, comparatively, in Puget Sound and Hood Canal. If at some future time, marine survival of steelhead improves, WDFW could switch back to raising them.

The Quinault Tribe may not approve. However, WDFW should not be wasting taxpayer and license buyer money raising fish that don't return to creel. So the Quinault's should feel free to rear and release all the hatchery steelhead that don't survive to return that they want, on their dime, not the state's (our money).

I'm just brain storming alternative's to the present action of raising hatchery steelhead that can't be fish for. Although raising summer steelhead might also be acceptable, but they might suffer the same poor survival rate as winter runs do.