Jerry,

By stable I mean that the most recent 5-year average adult run size of nearly 18,000 fish per year is almost 3,300 fish or 22% greater than the 25-year average of around 14,700.

I'm certainly not suggesting that the more fish we harvest the more fish that will come back. I am asking why, with a harvest averaging 4,500 wild fish per year during the last 25 years, the Quillayute has seen a 5-year average return of triple the escapement goal while the numbers have plummeted on the "protected" Straight of Georgia rivers that have mandatory wild steelhead release?

This suggests that a conservative amount of harvest is not detrimental and might possibly be beneficial to healthy native stocks while mandatory release of wild fish offers little if any protection to a wild stock when challenged by cyclic or adverse circumstance.

Do I think that the tribes aren't netting enough fish? That is certainly an irrelevant off the wall question! Regardless, I think it is a judgement call that only they can answer. The tribal 5-year average harvest has been estimated at roughly two-thirds of their allocation.

So now that we have gone full circle sans any defensive gut reaction to this diversion I am still left wondering...

Does the new status and management summary explain why the wild steelhead numbers on all of the Canadian C&R rivers that empty into the Straight of Georgia have plummeted despite the fact that they are all "protected" with mandatory wild steelhead release?

Or why the wild steelhead populations on the Quillayute have remained stable despite the fact that thousands of wild steelhead are harvested annually?

Thanks!