I have have to fully agree with those suggesting education in handling fish is the way to go. In principle this is like gun safety. At 10 yrs old i was taught all of the does and donts of the handling of weapons at pierce counties TSC along with what my dad had already taught me. Now there isnt a law enforcing each one of these important principles and there should be no reason to make such laws if everyone is sent through the same training. Ya you have your law breaking exceptions some times with a few people, but for the most part it works well. Now as for releasing salmon/trout/steelhead if every magazine, organization, t.v. show, etc... promoted safe release practices every chance they got it would surely have an impact. Most of all though, the best way is by example.
Hey I will admit right here that I was one of those that booted chums on the beach this year. And you know I didnt really know any better. With salmon and steelhead i was always careful with them and so were those around me, but when it came to chums these same people were like "BLAM onto the beach you go." I didnt know why either, I assumed that maybe chums are just tough and not nearly as fazed by such treatment. Now I didnt yard a fish with my boot like it was a football I usually new before it hit the shore wether i was gonna keep it or not so i just kept it near water, yanked the hook out of those monster teeth, put the fish in the water, cleaned it off and held it till it left under its own power. Now this is my first year doing serious river fishing so this was my first experience with chum fishing. And when you go down there and see people just kicking them on the beach it has an impact on you. I'm not trying to justify anything I'm just trying to give an impression of how well example works. What if those other 100 fishermen were only beaching those chums they kept and were water releasing those they didnt, I doubt kicking chums would have ever crossed my mind. I started reading this board about the time I first went to the nisqually to chum fish and after I saw the concern and complaints about the handling of chums I questioned my own methods and adjusted them to where i treated a chum like a steelhead and handled it with great care if it was gonna get released. Also, the game wardens were ticketing people for kicking chums around so atleast the minimal game enforcement we do have was doing something about it. I hope this gives you guys some idea on how a first time chum fishermen is influenced by what he see's around him.
Now you better believe 99% of the time if any salmon or steelhead gets within arms length i usually know by then whether I'm going to keep it or not. If I am I'll use any technique at my disposal to get that bugger on the beach, which usually becomes a joint effort with us. We dont care whether its simply grabbing it by the tail or gills, kicking, or full on football tackling, the fish will be put on the beach.
Just as an example of what can go wrong when landing a fish, this last july a friend of mine and I were at the barrier dam. He hooks into this maybe 5 pound clipped steelhead and wears it down till it neatly slides up to the rocks. Well I'm behind it ready to grab the thing and as soon as its nose hits the rocks it comes alive flips around zips across and through my feet, i jump, the line breaks, we both dive after the fish, fish gone, were soaked. now there were probably 50 people down there lining the beach in their lawn chairs and so on, just imagine the reaction of seeing two very large 6'7" guys diving after a 5 pound fish.

waterboy