This lies at the very heart of RESPONSIBLE salmon management. ALL of the managers MUST subscribe to the same benchmarks.... the GOLD STANDARD by which success or failure is ultimately measured. As it stands now, each agency effectively manages in isolation, undermining the success of the other... and this virtually GUARANTEES the demise of our wild salmon populations.

Former WFWC Chair Miranda Wecker invited WDFW staff to deliver a high level commission briefing to explain the various conservation metrics used by all of the different managing authorities. Prudent action absolutely relies upon having a common indicator of when the fish are in trouble and how to avoid letting things get that bad in the first place anyway! It was a timely request as most of the Commission is completely clueless on this issue.

At that heart of the matter is this. It's the same dam critter with the same basic biological needs to sustain its population. Why are the conservation metrics all so different from one agency to the next? Why can't they all get on the same page? And what can we do to eventually get there.


"Department staff will provide the Commission a briefing on NOAA’s determining factors for considering a stock as overfished, and the interface between federal agencies and state fisheries management relative to conservation objectives."
http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2017/09/audio/20170908_05.m3u

Listen for yourself, but I believe the presentation delivered by Michelle Culver was horribly fragmented and convoluted.... and never once addressed the issue of the agencies cooperatively working toward cohesive conservation goals.