The consensus seems to be that as the human population grows, the fish population plumets. The fish can't evolve fast enough to compensate for human impacts (nothing new). The small ecological environments are gonna go first because they have a smaller timeline for destruction. I'm not a science nerd like Tod , but those are just my simple observations. I'm sure the dead zone has alot to do with it. Earlier this year there was a potential for massive fish kill if wind had blown in a certain direction and uprooted stagnant water. Hatcheries just compound the problem by impairing the genetics. The Hood Canal historicaly has lower oxygen levels, so if those fish want to make it to the open ocean and back or survive as residence, they gotta be tough. If the hatcheries supplimented those rivers with fish from outside populations, that hadn't developed the unique characteristics that the Hood Canal fish need to survive, then they potentialy destroyed or diffused those characteristics that the fish had developed in order to thrive in those conditions. They basicaly wiped out years of evolution. It's not just their fitness (or their ability to procreate) that has been impacted by genetic disruption. If there's one place to develope new idea's for salmon/steelhead restoration it's going to be in the Hood Canal. The Puget Sound is on it's way to being a larger horror story.

....my shot at being smart

YouTube Rocks:
Hood Canal Dead Zone Footage


Here's some dead water articles:

http://www.psparchives.com/publications/...te_factor_2.pdf

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/sep/01/scientists-discuss-ambitious-effort-to-fix-hood/

They've also been tearing up the little quilcene to make it more natural again:

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/sep/19/massive-effort-under-way-to-take-back-the-little/