This old chestnut of who`s to blame for salmonid declines brings out all of the irrational subjective opinions as to the prime culprits. One says logging another native catch others think dams but we have no objective evaluation of causes of decline. Nor are we likely to have such;too many vested intrests prevent an objective assesment.Fisheries and forest managers feel threatened,water managers are in a blue funk and the native peoples defy the white mans logic with dreams of their forebearers.
While its purely opinion one can apply a form of logic to even the subjective. Northern rivers in Canada provide some basis. The fabled Dean River in spite of not having any industrial development or polution nor having any significant logging history and while reasonably inaccesable has suffered virtually the same declines that other steelhead rivers such as the Thompson have experienced. There is only one conclusion one can reach it has to be commercial bycatch.
Coho in northern rivers suffered similar declies and opinion said it was American overfishing. But when commercial fishing was banned four years ago the returns were up by 400 to 500 percent. Again logic would tell you that commercial overfishing by both countries was the culprite.
The move to barbless hooks will help to increase the escapement but barbless is no panacea for preserving fish stocks.
The days of commercial fishing are or should be over.The revenues from tourism and sport fishing will more than replace the loss of commercial fishing revenues. What is needed now is political influence to overcome the tunnelvisioned perceptions of prehistoric politicans.
coot