At least for Puget Sound hatchery Chinook a 30 pounder has become the new 50 or even 60# fish.

During the mark selective Chinook fisheries in Puget Sound during 2012 and 2013 WDFW port samplers measured more than 13,000 hatchery Chinook without handling a single fish larger than a meter in length (all less than 40 inches).

Equally of concern was the fact that the median size was roughly 28.5 inches (there were as many fish smaller than 28.5 and larger than 28.5). Just 40 years ago a Chinook jack for Puget Sound rivers was defined as any Chinook less than 28 inches long now nearly 1/2 of the returning adults are smaller than what once were jacks and many of the jacks would never be a legal fish in the salt (they are less than 22 inches long).

While the Puget Sound hatchery Chinook may be the most extreme all the region's Chinook populations are experiencing this shrinking phenomenon.

Curt