I'm a hundred per cent in favor of increased transparency of the NOF process (as well as other fish management processes).

That said I doubt that having the co-manager meetings open to the public would be very productive. There is just too much passion and diversity of interests on both sides of the table. It would be difficult to prevent progress from getting sidetracked by off topic debates.

Having given this issue a lot of thought I do have a suggestion that potentially would stream line the NOF process and at the same time increase transparency across the board. There is no reason not to take advantage to the technology available today. I would " stream" the co-manager meetings. The co-manager meetings should be limited to just a relatively small handful of policy folks from both sides of the table. Technical staff and other co-managers would be in separate rooms and the public would also be able to watch the meetings live without being in the room.

Direct public involvement would continue in the various NOF public meetings and I would hope via a interactive NOF web site. Such web site would not only allow the public to submit questions, opinions, etc. there should be links that provide immediate access to a variety of the data that drives the NOF. Such things as forecasts and methods, escapement history, run reconstruction. Additional information might be contact information for advisors so folks with concerns or a spoke person for their concerns would have a ready avenue.

The down side of all the above is that having a larger user involved and at the same time more informed users would be very much a double edge sword for some managers!

GodsLovesUgly
I think a major step in transparency in in-season updates and closures would to expand what was done this summer with the MA 9 and MA 10 summer Chinook selective fisheries. A table was available on WDFW's web site that list "quota" for those fisheries with frequent updates of in-season catch estimates. I see no reason why that could not be provided for all monitored salmon fisheries with at least updates at least a couple times a month.

Curt