It's funny that the LW chinook are the limiting factor for our area 10 season. Rec's haven't been able to fish anywhere near the locks for many years now. The tribe corks the bay 7 days a week, then they net the ship canal to get what they missed, and if they still have fish they missed, they net lake Washington. We can shut down our fishing and there won't be a single fish saved.

Salmon hatcheries need to be shut down, every one of them in Puget sound. The opportunity we're provided just doesn't match the cost. Every year areas get eliminated, quotas get lowered, and we get pushed out. The tribes capitalize on the forgone opportunity and cork the terminal areas without any consequences.

Does anybody have the illusion that this is temporary? Does anybody think that we'll ever get Elliot bay back? If this continues to decline another 5 years what will you think of hatcheries then?

There's a hope we might get the tribes to the table if we announced the hatcheries are closing. If they want to share the resource and the responsibility for native fish, we keep them open, if not we pull the plug. At least we'll still have the pinks to fish for every other year