Even an indépendant review would be worthless unless one first defined what the exact goal is supposed to be.
In one AK system, the coho are managed at a 60% harvest rate that has shown itself to be rather sustainable. But, the annual run will vary based on pink escapement. At no pinks, the run is about 16-1700; at 2 kilos of pinks per square metre the run in 8-10,000 or more. What should the MSY goal be? If, as is the case here in WA where all escapement levels are 5-10% of pre-fish the [Bleeeeep!] out the run levels, you would set the MSY goal in the AK stream at about 700. On the other hand, if you wanted to maximize the coho harvest (but significantly reduce pink) you could set it at 2-3,000 plus a boatload of pinks.
Same here. We are dealing with systems that are way under seeded, in habitat that could be improved, with oceans that are also being heavily harvested for the forage fish. So, before we can really set any escapement goal we have to look at how we want to manage the whole ecosystem-and then follow through.
If we insist, for example, in further lowering the chum escapement in WB and GH then we can follow that up with lowering coho.