Yeah, good post Starfish. I don't fish the Hanford Reach chinook but I'm pretty familiar with it. I know the Pasco WDFW Bio, perhaps the same one you refer to, has argued for the past several years to the 'harvest managers' downriver that more fish are needed on the spawning grounds. Too bad it has fallen on deaf ears. The Hanford Reach gets special protection flows from Priest Rapids during critical life stages (spawning, incubation, and emergence) that minimizes mortality and arguably provides better protection than a natural river. Unfortunately, the fish are mopped up in the lower fishery.

After a little more thought I have a few questions about this approach. Another thing to consider about the localized surcharge to these fisheries is this: The management agency for the state (WDFW) should already be allocating the necessary resources to manage these fisheries. Why does this particular geographic area not already have the funds needed to carry out these fisheries? If this was occuring elsewhere, what would the state do?

And finally, I believe its pretty pathetic to have a group of common citizens organize an effort to address an issue that the state should already be doing. Kudos to those who took the initiative to see a problem and come up with a solution for a possible fix.