If the marine survival issue can be figured out then I am sure the runs can eventually be restored. I'm not sure how sensitive steelhead arfe but the potomac river is far more overpopulated and polluted than the Puget Sound rivers. Yet it still hosts runs of stripers.

Sg said 80% off the fish are pinging receivers. They are out of the river. If they were not making it out of the river and dying in the streams then maybe its an issue. But the issue at hand is getting them to where they can feed and survive in the salt.

Look at out this way. If the ball park of 10 percent ( round number eventhough its been said it isn't an accurate number) return and streams like the carbon can get a double in production, then escapement is met. Another case is the Nisqually which has a dismal redd count, most of the river runs thru sparsely populated areas and is by far one of the lowest return rivers in the south sound.

So its not over population or habitat that limits it, in my opinion. Its as many say, the marine survival. Regardless of the hospital (stream) these fish are born in they all go to the same nursery which leads to death for many.

For your get up and move theory. Look at it this way. You have a construction site with 25 employees, taco bell across the street, one porta shtter, and a 4 month project. The porta shtter becomes nasty, contaminated, and hazardous to health. The fourth month passes and the project is completed and the crew departs. The shtter remains and over time gets no better despite the lack of human presence. But if the problem/conditions are found and reported, it can be made sanitary. Thus the need to identify the marine survival issue and remedy it.