Bruce,

It is not black and white between a bonanza and a drop in angling pressure...there's a LOT of room in between where everyone is happy.

For incidental impacts to equal direct impacts, anywhere from 10 to 20 times the steelhead encounters would need to take place, perhaps even more. (This is calculated using mortality studies that range from 3%-5% for the most part, but adding in 5%-7% additional mortality to both cover any cumulative impacts that Geo is talking about and to be extra conservative, just in case.)

With angling pressure anywhere from exactly where it is now, to quite a bit more, would still be less impact. If the fishing were to get so good that more and more people visit Forks to fish those rivers, then more restrictive regulations to reduce the impacts would probably be appropriate.

You also have to remember that CnR hooking and handling mortality will not take a big leap over there now...there are already lots of folks that fish only CnR on tose fish, and those impacts are already there...it won't just show up now that harvest has been stopped.

Fish on...

Todd