Actuary,

The Hump's spawning escapement numbers have not been great the last few years. What WDFW does is set a presumed closing date of March 31st. This is what appears in the regs. When they predict escapement for a given year class, those predictions occur long after the regs have been published and, sadly, the last few years have seen early closures because runs fell below escapement.

It's a drag but it's also good for the fish in that they can be left alone to re-build. At least the dept. is acknowledging low numbers and doing something about it as opposed to past practices of kidding themselves and the public that the runs are in better shape than they are. That's what got us in this mess in the first place.