I can confirm as sitting WDFW Puget Sound Salmon Commission member that there were no falsely spread rumors,. The commissioners all conferenced earlier in the week with a decision to close, which was later overruled by the new Director. While I feel we have to trust the Director's judgement, it's concerning that the commission was not consulted in the over-ruling of the jointly made decision.
I do believe that we have consensus amongst the commission to begin managing all marine areas as a single entity, aggregating the impacts and encounters across areas, versus closing a specific area when it happens to reach it's predetermined impact percentage. This management technique allows fishing to continue when all of the fish congregate into a specific area on any given year due to bait fish concentrations, their inherently transitory nature, or other conditions. I expect this to be a major topic at the upcoming NOF.

The issue at hand in my mind is, how does this scheme fly when it hasn't been etched in stone yet during an annual cycle?
Time will tell.

I can appreciate your comments LarryB and will certainly echo them in our next meeting. Good feedback. Keep it coming.