Fishchaser –
Interesting questions and my answers likely will be unpopular with many on this site.

Both steelhead and salmon are managed under much the same scenarios, which are with escapement goals established at MSY levels. This in most cases is the result of court orders. In the strict sense most of these populations are not managed for MSY. While the escapement goals are at MSY levels year to year management is typically design so that the expectation is that escapement will be at or above the established level; escapements above the goals is not considered to be a management failure in fact is expected. This is contrast by what is considered to be classic MSY management where is fish escaping the fishery above the goal were considered wasted.

Today in most cases the forecasts and exploitation rates established for each run of fish is typically “buffer” to provide some cushion for management error. While many would consider these precautions to less than adequate the fact remains that when run sizes are larger than escapement goals it is more typical for the post fishery escapements to be above rather below the goals.

With any sort of reasonable productivity for a given stock MSY escapement levels are typically well above population viability levels. So no I don’t believe that steelhead are being managed to extinction by MSY management. If the Wild Steelhead Release folks are correct the application of WSR in under escaped runs will prevent the collapse of the population. If the population does not increase then harvest is not likely the cause of the low returns.

The management being attacked in the other thread you referred to is an example when fisheries are managed more by court decisions than biological principles.

Tight lines
S malma