Plunker -
Glad to see you posting on this topic; appreciate your well thought out views even when we may disagree.

A big thanks for post some of the work of Ward et al on the Keogh River (I can never figure out how to post that stuff). Their work is among of the best on the coast.

For those that have not read some of the Keogh River work the decline in steelhead abundance during the 1990s is especially alarming. Escapements fell from more than a 1,000 a year to just a handful of fish in just 2 fish generations. This was in spite of the river being managed "correctly". Regulations were catch and release with no hatchery fish planted. Most of the rivers the east coast of Vancouver Island, lower BC mainland and Puget Sound are experiencing similar production declines of their wild winter steelhead.

While hatchery and harvest issue are important factors in steelhead management the elimination of either or both are not magic bullets for the salvation of our steelhead. While we fight over these 2 side-issues the real war is being lost. The direction in which our society is going we run the very really risk of reducing our rivers to nothing more than wet conveyor belts than can only function to transport hatchery fish to and from the ocean.

Tight lines
Smalma