I agree that the rockfish are all but gone from Puget Sound and that the trawlers have raped everything they could. But we need to know that sportsmen have also vastly overharvested rockfish. Even in areas where trawlers have never worked, the rockfish populations have dwindled. This is, in part, due to the extreamly slow growth of most rockfish. A 20 pound yelloweye rockfish will be approximatly 80 years old.

I am 59 years old and was raised on Puget Sound. It used to be almost impossible not to catch a rockfsih anywhere you dropped a hook. But we often took 10 each, which may well have equated to 200 years or more of fish growth.

As Pogo said " We have met the enemy and we is it." Or something like that.