Rich G.
Some very interesting comments from you the past few days. In many ways government is the problem. Either too much regulation, or none.
Looking back about a hundred years as our northwest population began to grow and we pursued development. Some leaders realized that development like dams, logging, building, etc., would affect our fish populations. So, they built hatcheries to compensate for the natural losses. It worked for awhile. Now we have extreme habitat loss (an Oregon State professor says we have less than five percent of original), but good ability to produce hatchery salmon, but are prohibited to taking an abundance due to the complexities of ESA. The government's promises are broken. Think about our restrictions to reducing seals and sea lions. Same with over populated predatory birds (government built ideal habitat for them on the Columbia). There's a permit to eliminate a substantial number of sea lions just downstream of Bonneville, but only a small portion of the quota has been taken. And last, but certainly not the least, think of the plight of the treaty tribes. Pretty much we're all in the same boat now.