Here's another possible answer why the Pacific True Cod are finally making a comeback;

When the bottom draggers came and did their damage to the fish stocks decades ago,(with WDFW's blessing mind you), they also did something else, they destroyed the eel grass beds that had been growing in Puget Sound for centuries undisturbed.

Eel grass is a major habitat for countless species of small fish and baby Pacific Cod flourished in the eel grass beds in Puget Sound, I used to catch hundreds of them while fishing for greenling, another species decimated by the bottom rapers.

As a youngster, my family lived on the water near Waterman Dock in Port Orchard. I got a front row seat to see the devastation the draggers were doing to Puget Sound. I was disgusted and I had no idea of the impact of what they had done even though I was not yet an adult.

For weeks eel grass washed up on the beach like someone had taken a giant lawnmower under water and just knocked it all down. That was in addition to the thousands of dead fish that washed up on the beach that the draggers had discarded because they were to small to be sold.

Sad, very very sad.

Years later after the bottom fish had all but disappeared it all made sense, disgusting as it was.

It looks to me that the eel grass has now grown back and the fish are taking advantage of it.

Lets hope all of the missing species make a comeback, it would sure make Puget Sound a lot better place to live and play around.

WD.