AuntyM,

Commercial fishing, like recreational fishing, does become more sophisticated all the time. Like WN1A said, the ocean isn't a black box. The knowledge base increases all the time as well. What happens specifically to steelhead there isn't persued because there hasn't been an economic incentive to do so.

We know some important things about steelhead however. They don't school up in the ocean; they migrate solo or in groups numbering a few fish. They don't migrate north and south along the coast like chinook and coho. They migrate far west, well beyond 180* lg.

Unless the Russians have changed where and what they fish for, they aren't intercepting many steelhead. The primary intercepting fleets, according to the early 1990s investigation, were mainly the Taiwanese, followed by the Poles and Japanese if I recall correctly. At that time there was considerable speculation that high seas intercpetions were the proximate cause of significantly reduced steelhead returns. As it turned out, some steelhead were intercepted as bycatch in high seas squid fisheries. Although the data weren't particularly strong, I think I read that the worst case estimate was that high seas fishing MAY account for interception of up to three percent of US steelhead runs. That's not a whole lot more than statistical noise, and in any case isn't enough to explain sustained run reductions in PS and inability to rebound if all other variables remain the same.

Although I've only glanced at it, I recommend you buy Tom Quinn's recent book. Lotta' good stuff, and you might really like it.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.