Slug,

I don't know the Hood Canal streams very well. I think the most productive coho and steelhead habitat is pretty degraded by development, especially on the Kitsap peninsula side. West side streams head in the national park, so that is good, but other parts of those rivers have been pretty trashed by logging. Hood Canal coho have been managed for natural production for some time now, so they should be doing about as well as their habitat productivity and capacity permits, which might be kinda' low. Steelhead are such generalists that they should have rebounded to habitat capacity unless they're being over-harvested. From the way chum salmon perform, both hatchery and wild, it doesn't seem like there is an early marine rearing problem. I wish I knew. Maybe there are some experts here who can shed some light on the topic.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.