Parker, here is the link to the report that I cited: http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/fish/harvest/99-00/harvest99-00.pdf

Tribal harvest is broken out on pages 36-38. It is an interesting read. Biggest single month of harvest is September and mainly comes out of the Columbia - not surprising this is probably bycatch from salmon fishing. If we look at WR only what we see is this:

November total catch 1452
Westside 1000
Columbia 452

December total catch 9123
Westside 8903
Columbia 220

January total catch 6629 (no Columbia R. fish in this total)

February total catch 2325 (again no Columbia fish)

March total catch 2682 (once again no Columbia fish)

April total catch 770
Westside 367
Columbia 403

So, as you have correctly pointed out, no reporting of wild vs. hatchery, but we can probably make some assumptions (here is where I probably get myself in a lot of trouble )

If I look at the total tribal catch of WR SH by the tribes as 22981, I will assume that 10% of the November, December, & January fish are wild, the balance hatchery. February 50/50, March and April 90% Wild, 10% hatchery. Here is how the numbers break out.

Total WR catch 22981
Hatchery 16,990 0r 74%
Wild 5,991 Or 26%

Contrast this with the Sports catch from the same report.

Total WR catch 33,304
Hatchery 27857 Or 84%
Wild 5447 Or 16%

Now, my assumptions may be very faulty, if so, go ahead and get the flamethrowers warmed up. However, using my assumptions it looks like to me that we as sports fishers have close to the same impact on the wild SH as do the tribes. It is even closer when we factor in the mortality on released wild fish.

Once again, I do not disagree with all the valid points that you make Parker. I also know that you spend a fair amount of time fishing with members of the Quinault tribe so I'm fairly certain you do not have a knee jerk reaction to this issue. I'm saying that it is always hardest to look in the mirror and admit that I'm part of the problem rather than point the finger of blame at someone else. And I don't believe that I carry any credibility if I only point that finger of blame.

I wish that we could have more confidence in the raw data, but once again, I think that is a double edge sword. There are plenty of folks that I know that will not report their sport catch. Don't ask me why, never could understand it, but there you have it.

Peace.