Barnettm,

For the same reason they can fish where runs used to exist that no longer do.

It's a treaty fishing right. If the Indians had been really smart, they would have insisted that the state and federal governments would protect the runs and keep them healthy so that the right to fish would be more meaningful. Judge Boldt did make a comment somewhere in his decision that the right to take fish at usual and accustomed places included more than the right to dip a net into the water and have it come up empty.

Because it is a right to fish, the fact that the fish populations present in Lake Washington today are different than the populations present historically is legally irrelevant.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.