Puresteel:

High seas netting has not been a problem over the past decade. The U.S. has a treaty with the Japanese banning it. The U.S. Coast Guard has caught Taiwaneze boats doing it every so often, but you can't hang your hat on this as a significant cause of decline. The U.S. also has an Exclusive Economic Zone out to 200 miles since the late-seventies and no foreign nationals can fish without permission. Permission has not been granted since the early 80s. This is an old issue.

On the Columbia basin, at present, there is no single greater cause of decline than the dams. Commercial harvest hammered the stocks the first half of the century, but with the dams, there can be no sustainable recovery.