I'm trying to figure out how to frame my letters/emails to NWFS and reps...

Perusing the comments on WDFW, Salmon University and NW Sportsman facebook pages, a common response by anglers to all this is something like "tribes are taking more than their fair share and are destroying salmon with their nets"

I'm no fan of tribal nets, but from a macro perspective I think this argument going to be counterintuitive. I worry that if the masses of anglers are mobilized to petition decisionmakers, and they use this argument, we're shooting ourselves in the foot.

a) It's a misunderstanding of the facts: the stock that broke the camel's back this year (coho) is having a hard time because of cyclical variations in ocean conditions...not tribal fishing.

b) if all of our salmon stocks are *truly* declining as many anglers are claiming with this "tribal nets" argument, then the answer would be that NOBODY should fish, anglers included.

I guess my point is, despite all the BS with the tribes, in recent years the salmon fishing has largely been pretty good. If we claim that it's bad, we're basically supporting an argument that it should be shut down permanently.