Remember, any state allocation could not have been taken prior, as there was not expected to be enough fish. The Nisqually opening was an emergency opening. While it is reasonable to allow the tribe to conduct testing and to take some for ceremonial and subsistence reasons, once they get that number taken, the exact amount should be allocated next to non-treaty fisheries. That is how 50-50 should work. But what I has happened in the past, when I inquired, is that the tribe simply stated they were expecting a certain return and were expecting to take a around 5800. The state felt that this would go into escapement, so rather than fight for us, they just kept it closed. They informed me later that it was a good thing, as the tribe just barely kept from going into escapement and not a fish was available to spare.

They probably will use the same justification, stating that if the tribe conducts its fishery as expected, there will be no room for any wild steelhead incidental catch left for the sports fisherman, so we can't fish.

We should all be worried, as if this is the way the state conducts openings and negotiations, we can just forget about fishing.
The truth is, if we got a full fishery, we would probably take about 3 to 5% or the catch at most, and likely much less. In that 2001 run they are taking about, the sports catch was a little over 2300. I can not find the tribes take, but did see an escapement report that seemed to indicate it was around 30,0000.