Since at least the 70s adult salmon runs in PS, GH, and WB have been, or could be, updated by commercial fisheries. A single net tells you something; that some fish were in one spot. Not much else.

For the agency, it is a hell of a lot cheaper to use fisheries to update. But, it requires a few things. Staff to develop the models. They did this in the 70s and 80s with much more primitive technology. You need catches to be fully reported within a couple days of the fishery. You need to be a nimble manager; monitor the fishery, evaluate catch, change openings to match catch.

Following Hoh V. Baldridge management went from meeting conservation needs (escapement is paramount) to fixed schedules so that catches would balance.

When I was in management, we had almost all the catch within three days of the landing; most in one. When I retired we had some fisheries still unreported three months after landing.

The target of management has shifted from reasonably pure conservation which heavily punished the last in line (Tribes and in-river recs) to stable seasons and balanced catches. And as long as marine mixed stock fisheries are pushed for, that is the way it will be.