Smalma

My understanding of the Treaty Right is that the tribes, in aggregate, are entitled to 50% of the harvestable fish of Ceded Area fish returning to WA.

This means that, say, Makah could take all the available Lake WA sockeye (say that there was an Early Stuart fishery). In that case, only a NI fishery could be allowed. No more tribal fishing.

So, if WDFW puts together fisheries that ONLY take 50% of the available harvest on each stock then they have met Boldt requirements. The fact is that the tribes now seem to need more than 50% of at least some stocks to get "their" fishery. I have even seen some writers who claim that, for example, Muckleshoot gets 50% of the fish returning to their home waters. Nope.