FNP -
Interesting policy. Nice to hear folks actually propose an alternative to MSY management rather than the generalized reponse that "MSY sucks" comments w/o an alternative.

However I feel for a valid comparsion between MSR and MSY you need to clear up the definitions. My understanding is that strictly speaking MSR is not max. fish abundance but rather a management structure that would maximize man-days of fishing recreation. That may or may not mean for managing for high fish abundance - maximum abundance likely means no fishing as there would no room for even hooking mortality. To minimize man-days of recreation the amount of harvest needed to attract anglers would likely vary from speceis to species.

For example MSR for a halibut fishery would likely rely on more harvest (closer to MSY) than say trout fishing in Yellowstone Park. Again it boils down to what anglers are interested in. If you example was apply to say chinook salmon fishing in Washington state the high hooking mortality in the salt (10 to 20% depending on the size of the chinook being caught) would likely mean no fish to harvest. While I could easily live with that my experience with a pretty broad cross section of salmon anglers in this state would tell that most would prefer to have chinook to harvest.

Strictly speak MSY escapement goals are not that level that has the highest recruits per spawner (RPS) but rather the escapement that produces the highest number of fish above the escapement goal (typically referred to as "harvestable fish"). The highest RPS on most spawner/recruit curves occurs at very low escpaements - right next to zero.

A hypothical population might have a carry capacity of say 10,000 and MSY level of 6,000 and a maximum RPS of say 100 fish. Because of the interest of anglers I would venture that the majority of salmon anglers would opt for something closure to MSY than carrying capacity where a growing number of steelhead would prefer something closer to carrying capacity.

Sorry but don't currently have more time for more detail comments.

Tight lines
S malma