I was sick almost every day for 4 years down there watching the thousands upon thousands of wild salmon and steelhead being taken from that river and sold for .10$ a pound of used for halibut bait.

I remember in spring of 2000 when we had that low water and they just raped the wild steelhead run. I also remember walking into the Seafood plant that april one night seeing 4,500 wild steelhead frozen in piles with heads and tails cutt off that were not sold as there was no market. The fish plant worker that was there that night went on to tell me how many fish there were and that they would be used for halibut bait as they were all freezer burnt anyways.

I remember getting bashed by someone from WDFW on this board when I contested the number of wild steelhead which were reported to be harvested that winter on the Quiluete System by treaty fisheries. I remember he posted that only 1400 or so wild steehead were harvested that winter when I knew there were many more than that. 4,500 were only the fish caught in March and April. And that 4,500 were the ones that couldnt be sold and actually went through the fish plant. Many of the fisherman go through other buyers for a higher price or sell off of the bank. And that year they had a very high percentage of wild fish caught in the early part of the run.

Who knows how many wild fish were really harvested.