Griz,

The WDFW and tribal harvest managers make a pre-season run size estimate for both the hatchery and wild run components for the year. The hatchery run is considered 100% harvestable, except for the hatchery escapement if there is a need for a given river to collect hatchery broodstock. The wild run in excess of the escapement goal is deemed harvestable surplus. The harvestable hatchery and wild steelhead are added up and then divided in half to determine the treaty and non-treaty shares.

Tracking treaty harvest is the easier part. Steelhead that are commercially sold are entered on a fish ticket by the commercial buyer. WDFW fish samplers collect the catch data daily and phone or fax it to Olympia, where it is entered on computer and available for everyone to monitor. Some tribes have systems for tracking "over the bank" private fish sales, which is legal, and some do not, making such sales illegal. The total amount of undocumented sales is, by definition, unknown, but managers consider it to be a relatively small percent of the total. (Undocumented sales are common to non-treaty fishing as well, but those generally do not include steelhead.)

Estimating the sport catch is less precise. WDFW checkers interview anglers on selected rivers (a representative sample, hopefully) and count anglers and vehicles and boats. Periodic counts of anglers and boats are made by fixed wing or helecopter. This data is extrapolated to estimate a sport harvest per unit of time and area based on the angler interviews. Those estimates are back checked after the end of the season with punch card return data. It's not the most accurate catch estimation system, but it's what we've got, and it's probably close enough to meet essential conservation needs, although it's no doubt pretty weak for precise catch allocation purposes.

Hope that information helps you some.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.