Salmo

What is your basis to say Skagit runs were never that large? There is no data that I know of. I do know that when Jeff Koenings applied Best Available Science to Karluk Lake sockeye he estimated that the lake's capacity for spawning sockeye was 2 million. Bottom sediment evaluation going back more than 2,000 years shows escapements varying from 200K to 4 million. For most of the last 1,000 years, pre industrial fishing, the minimum escapement was 2 million and regulalry went to 3 and 4.

I don't know how many pinks should spawn in the Skagit but it is damsite more than the 330K goal used for years. If we put a million in the Green the Skagit should be closer to 10 mil than 330K.

As for the estuary, we have seen in Kennedy Creek that the 50K or so chums send nutrients out into the estuary; setting the table for the outmigrating fry.