MSY is the antithesis of abundance-based management. It is rooted in the idea that the habitat has a finite carrying capacity, and that the best way to maximize production from that finite capacity is by limiting the spawning escapement thru intensive harvest. MSY seeks to manage fisheries for the smallest possible spawning escapement to fully utilize the available rearing habitat. Any excess escapement is viewed as "waste" in this capitalistic construct, the same way that spill over dams is viewed as waste since it does not contribute to maximum power production.

The MSY ethic does not mesh well with efforts to restore abundance. In fact, as habitat is further degraded by our ever-expanding human impacts, the MSY construct seeks ever smaller escapement goals in proportion to the reduced carrying capacity of damaged habitats. The MSY mindset does nothing to pro-actively encourage habitat restoration. Rather it is used as a reactive justification to continue maximum harvest on ever-dwindling runs of salmon and steelhead.

In contrast, the MSR construct defines its success on maximizing abundance. It too recognizes a finite carrying capacity for the rearing habitat, however MSR seeks to produce the largest possible spawning escapement for the available habitat.

The MSR ethic meshes much better with efforts to restore historic abundance. Because abundance is the primary goal, MSR encourages pro-active habitat restoration efforts. MSR proponents would designate conservation of existing ecosystems a top priority, and make reclamation and restoration of lost/degraded habitats a pivotal component of the management scheme in order to ensure that sufficient habitat was available for ever-increasing numbers of spawners to seed.

If fish managers are really serious about the task of salmon restoration, they must recognize that MSY is no longer the appropriate model for managing our fisheries. A paradigm shift toward the MSR approach is the only way to recover depleted runs to historic abundance.

Over the last century, a monolithic fish bureaucracy has evolved to worship the MSY doctrine, and we have paid the price. MSY is steeped in the misguided belief that we can have more for less, that smaller escapements are good for bountiful harvests, that an unharvested salmon is somehow a "waste" once abyssmal escapement goals have already been met. Never mind that unharvested salmon's contributions to the genetic diversity of its species or the nutrient biomass of its riverine ecosystem.

This capitalistic construct of maximizing "yield" with the minimum amount of invested "seed" allowed us to be lulled into the false security that we could continue to mine the rivers for free wealth without regard for the fish, their genetic diversity, or their nutrient-deprived habitats. When harvest abuses were synergistically combined with the rampant habitat destruction of human "progress", it was a formula for certain depletion of the runs.