"Wild" escapement for Naselle chinook was most assuredly projected to go down... not necessarily as a reflection of harvest abuses, but as a function of reduced hatchery production.

Just like the lower Columbia River tules, the principal source of wild-born Naselle chinook recruits are the offspring of hatchery strays. As less and less hatchery fish return to Naselle, so too diminish the "wild" fish they produce.

It should come as no surprise that "wild" escapements would tank as fewer and fewer hatchery-origin spawners are available to seed the gravel to produce those "wild" fish.
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"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!