Salmo g

Unrelated to this thread, but since you are such a stickler for detail, shouldn't you change your handle to either Onchorhyncus m or O mykiss

Back to the topic... what does the 12,000 obligation really mean? 12,000 Cowlitz-bound steelhead swimming into the lower Columbia before the nets take their share? 12,000 steelhead entering the lower Cowlitz before the sports take theirs? 12,000 fish back to the hatchery?

Bottom line, at what point in the migration is this 12,000 fish obligation enumerated? And where do the unharvestable "wild" fish fit into that number, or are they even part of it?