The question at the heart of the WSR issue is not whether the runs are as good as possible, but wheter WSR will help.

The simple answer is no. WSR has been in place in puget sound rivers for what maybe 15 years. Despite this there has been a so called trend of declining runs (I will not argue against this--it is almost certainly true of the puyallup based on the presented graph).

Despite WSR being the law of the land for over a decade in the puget sound basin, steelhead runs are in decline (if you beive the data as presented by WSC).

This is pretty strong evidence that WSR won't help whatever ails the runs on the OP.

To me this appears nothing but a power grab by one user group (C&R people) over another (fish bonkers). BTW I am probably more in the C&R camp than the bonker camp.

Furthermore blanket regulations is not really a good way to go if you like to keep fishing. One hypothetical example, blanket closure of all rivers to protect spawning chinook and juvenile salmon.


So I conclude as I have before that the real issues are habitat related and all this excitement about regulation (ie blanket WSR) is a waste of time.