Rich,

When you're told that OP rivers are producing at carrying capacity, that would be today's degraded habitat capacity. So yeah, some seasons they are at their present carrying capacity. Of course, you've marked the other side of the equation regarding harvest, and the camps simply disagree on that. My own experience suggests that MSY/MSH inevitably result in overfishing 50% of the time or more, so rivers are underescaped and more susceptable to above average losses from floods and droughts.

So why does a small river on Kodiak Island produce more fish than all of the Columbia R. or all of Puget Sound and the coast?
1) habitat degredation;
2) general pattern of overharvest;
3) the Gulf of Alaska is generally much more productive than the marine waters utilized by our fish (yeah, even though many WA fish rear PART of their lives in the Gulf, they also spend significant time in less productive waters as well).

Sincerely,

Salmo g.