WDFW data collection and analysis is a great mystery to all of us. Why can't they explain it to us? Why can't they devote a page on their web-site to the subject.

What they probably do is sample over a period of time and then multiply by some factor to account for the time they are not there. There can be hazards to doing this. If the fish checker shows up during prime time and logs 100 fish in 2 hours, and then multiplies by 8 to account for the time he was not there then you may have bogus data. But the process is never explained to us, so we do not know one way or the other.

My own pet peeve is the 350,000 fish escapment "rule" for Lake Wa sockeye. I have issues with this number (issues which I believe are based on sound principles), but I can never get them to talk about it.

I think we should ask them to hold a workshop or something and show us how they get from A to Z, beginning with the raw data.

This same thing goes for the punch card data. We are severly admonished to send in our cards, but we never hear about the data. What's up with that??