Blktailhunter,

What makes a Skagit steelhead more precious than any other wild steelhead? Every one knows that there is incidental mortality associated with CNR fishing, and over 30 years of data shows that not only CNR, but some limited direct harvest fishing on Skagit steelhead has had ZERO affect on the adult population abundance. This means that not fishing has done nothing to increase population abundance.

And the data show very clearly that larger escapements greater than 8,000 don't result in subsequent larger runsizes. No matter how much we might want to believe it will happen, the data show again and again that it doesn't. That's a pretty clear indicator of habitat carrying capacity at present marine survival rates. Skagit native steelhead are as healthy as it is possible for them to be under contemporary environmental conditions. Opposition to restoring the CNR season can only be emotionally based, because it's sure not based on science.

Sg