Geoduck -
The decline on Vancouver Island clearly a marine survival issue - Hooten was reporting on the smolt to adult survival that is the survival from the time the fish leave the river until they return. It is true that they have experimented with adding nutrients to the system and have demostrated increased freshwater production but that apparently has not translated to increased marine survival.

There has been suggestions that the putting more salmon on the spawning grounds would result in increased production. If that is indeed the case I would have expected better production from the Snohomish. The wild salmon escapements have been among the largest in the State and that last couple of years essentially off the charts (more than 1 million pinks in both 2001 and 2003). Could supply more details if anyone is interested.

Jerry -
As you may know neither B.C. or Oregon have blanket bans on the retention of wild steelhead. The majority of the waters have such bans but not all. In fact the Oregon streams are being managed much as the recent norm for Washington - that is on streams that have "healthy returns" wild fish harvest (1/day and 5/year) is allowed (at lest the last time I checked). One reason there are not more such opportunities is that until recently many systems had not been monitored to deteremine the population status.

Of course there is no wild steelhead retention in Idaho as all the populations are ESA listed.

Tight lines
S malma