DH,

There is nothing wrong in putting conservation of the fish first, but the second part of that, where opportunity will come by doing so is flawed. Employing every conceivable conservation measure is likely to yield a modest result - at best. Alternatively, there may be no measurable difference whatever from contemporary baseline population abundances. Some who call themselves conservationists are more altruistic than others, and they tend never to be the majority. That doesn't make them less right; it's just that in a pluralistic society, the alternatives that deny present and future fishing opportunity are not going to be popular.

If WFC believes that by closing hatcheries, wild steelhead will recover to the level that supports meaningful fishing opportunity in Puget Sound, well, they missed the train. That one left the station decades ago. The last time wild PS steelhead were able to sustainably support fishing was around 1968 or when the WA state human population was 2.6 million. It's currently over 6 million and rapidly approaching 7 million and is projected to reach 10 million in fewer years than are projected for PS chinook recovery. That's relevant because the PS chinook recovery plan contains no measures to reduce the effects of the primary limiting factor. The prospective PS steelhead recovery plan, whenever it comes out, won't either.

Although the policy folks at the fish agencies pronounce "extinction is not an option," they are being duplicitous in saying so. While extinction for most populations can be avoided, recovering them to naturally self-sustaining levels that support treaty and non-treaty harvest fisheries is delusional. I think, at best, south PS rivers may support museum level populations of wild steelhead into the future, and north PS rivers may support wild populations that provide limited CNR fishing from time to time, in the best case scenario.

Absent a path forward that includes hatchery salmon and steelhead production, there will be no chinook or steelhead fishing in PS. You probably didn't read it here first.

Sg