All the while the runs have been managed under MSY they have been under critical mass. The natural abundance was gone prior to us even keeping track, and as we pounded the runs year after year, the food chain related to the fish shrank as well making it a very slow process for the runs to rebound. With environmental factors, runs managed below critical mass and a broken food chain the fish never have a chance to refill carrying capacity because the food, habitat and MSY won't allow it.

Look at the upper Bogachiel and Clawah. There is absolutely no reason that those rivers are not completely plugged full of fish 9 months out of the year. Those rivers have pristine habitat and miles of the very best spawning beds, multiple species should be spawning ontop of each other. For the most part those rivers are empty and unused, even150 years ago they would have put the Kamchatka Peninsula to shame with their abundance.