Very educational post, Spawnout. That info reinforces my suspicions on the faulty application of the MSY concept.

And the bedtime story format made it understandable even to us who can only think in two dimensions.

My only point is that every river is different. There are dozens, if not hundreds of factors impacting spawning success. Maybe a low water temp slows the rot rate, maybe bears consume a significant number of fish, etc, etc. To compare a river on Kodiak Is. with one in WA is apples and oranges.

Should rivers be left alone to do the wild thing?
Maybe so. I think it should at least be tried on some rivers. But I would expect some successes and some disasters. Disasters are part of natural evolution, but humans, with their short attention span are too impatient to tolerate anything they view as a setback.