Thanks to all who attended. I caught most of the public comments and the beginning of Schmitten. I'm glad to see the angle his remarks seemed to be taking (seemed to be setting up to absolve the State of accountability for missed escapements) wasn't representative of the whole commission discussion; looks like the good stuff came after him.

Like others, I'm concerned that the Tribe has potential to spoil the whole party. It seems to me they generally don't net more than 4 days per week during the peak season as is (3 or 4 days/ wk. seems to be their usual thing), but if the non-tribal commercial fishery is either significantly reduced or eliminated altogether, they might play the dreaded "foregone opportunity" card and increase their own efforts, thereby negating any meaningful conservation savings. I'm not confident they'll be receptive to any rule that limits the number of days they can fish in a given week, at any rate, even if it doesn't reduce their overall opportunity. Sovereignty can be a bitch. I hope my concern here proves to be unfounded; the 4/3 split would be HUGE for the sport fishery and conservation.

More wild fish hitting the gravel also means more hatchery fish not being harvested, and that will probably lead to reduced hatchery plants (for coho, anyway), which is probably not such a big deal, especially if the wild runs continue to increase as a result. Just a neutral observation....

Either way, I think the discussion is moving in the right direction as regards what the State CAN control, and that represents real progress toward meaningful change. So far, there is reason to be hopeful, which is more than we've had around here in quite a while.