Again, "Back in the day", WDF did in-season updates in PS, GH, and Willapa. Post-season analysis showed that the ISU's were more accurate (closer to the real number) than the PSF's in almost every case.

The problem;em with ISU's, well known to the tribes, is that the last in line is one who bears the conservation burden. The ocean fisheries, which are primarily NI in the sharing, are done and landed. So, the NI gets their fish and the Tribes sit. This led to Hoh V. Baldridge and the idea to equalize catch and let escapement occur.

Through agreements, such as not reporting catch immediately, prevents ISUs. It does allow for "fixed" fisheries. As one former Harvest manager put it "We had preseason agreements and everybody fished according to them. Management was successful". Of course, the coho run in question didn't make goal.

Such a fishing pattern does keep the state and tribes out of court and appearing to work well together.

I believe that the runs can be managed better but it require an investment in more staff to collect and analyze the data. It will also require shifting fisheries to terminal so that big ocean mixed stock fisheries don't hammer them. The beneficiaries would be the fish, the tribes, and the in-river sporties.