FNP -
In discussing various management approachs I feel it is important that we have a clear understanding of what is being discussed - that is why I keep beating the definition drum.

In that light I believe that a review of definitions would be helpful. In this context Maximum sustainable would mean the greatest number that can be maintained.

Thus MSY/H would mean the greatest harvest that can be maintained - harvest in this case can mean dead fish that are taken home, the total mortality from all fishing impacts. Meaning it is possible to manage a fishery at MSY where all the mortality is from hooking mortaltiy (CnR season). However in todays world the fishing impacts are typcially the sum of harvest and other mortalities (hooking mortality, net drop out ect).

MSR would mean the greatest recreation that can be maintained. In this case recreation is typcially measured in man-days fishing. typcially the manager will limit gear efficency or bag limits to insure that more days of fishing will be produced from the same fishing impacts. A recent MSR example discussed here on this site was the suggestion that the bag limit on crabs be reduced from 6 to 4. This would spread the harvest out over more days of recreational crabbing.

MSA would mean the greatest abundacne ( in this case adult spawners) that can be maintained. Unless I'm missing some nuance it appears to me that MSA is essential the same as maintianing the population at carryiing capacity. To set some value for MSA management a decision needs to be made under what conditions are the number of spawners to be maximized? Average conditions? the best that have been seen?

Bottom line we have 3 different and interesting management options with different long term objectives that maximize - 1) the number of dead fish from fishing impacts, 2) the number of man-days of fishing and 3) the number of adult spawners.

Your management preference seems to have morphed from MSR to MSA which is certainly viable option. However I am interested in how you would suggest implementing such a management system for say Chinook salmon. Would you place a higher priority in wild or hatchery fish? Would there be any case where wild chinook would be allowed? How would you suggest managing mix stock areas (all marine waters) to insure that the weaker stocks would be able to reach MSA? To access hatchery fish how much impact (short fall of MSA - a failure to meet the management objective) on wild stocks would allow in the combined fisheries?

As you can see it is pretty easy to select a management option but to successfully implement such a scheme may be a little more difficult. As always the devil is in the detail.

Tight lines
S malma