How about a river like the Lyre. The bulk of the river flows through the park so the habitat has been fairly stable. I could be wrong but I don't know of any tribal netting there. Yet the steelhead have all but dissapeared there. Can the lyre river decline be put mainly on the shoulders of sporties overharvesting? There could be other factors I'am unaware of but the Lyre really stands out in my mind as a river that has declined due to nothing more than harvesting with no tribes involved.
I feel some relavent facts are in order in the case of the Lyre.
The Lyre is the drainage for Lake Crescent. At one time the lake was open to anadromous fish use. Historically, a blockage occurred (no "hand of man" involved) near the outlet of the lake. SInce that time anadromous species have had use of the few miles below the lake only. There is some habitat for natural production but it is not a lot.
The Lyre River steelhead fishery has been supported by hatchery plants from nearby facilities for many years. These are off-station plants of smolts... arguably the worst kind of plants due to the "extra" straying potential... on-station hatchery releases already having a pretty good stray rate.
Having said all that, we won't have hatchery fish plants to kick around in the Lyre anymore... these were a victim of WDFW budget cuts last spring. Now, we may get a chance to see what the natural production in a non-fished Olympic Peninsula stream will be.
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