I was not a participant in the ocean harvest circus of meetings. Nobody ever said anything that I heard about even wanting to be at the meetings and I don't ever recall anyone being kept out except for executive sessions, which I was kept out of too.

Rules were somewhat simpler then, too. Rule 1 was you will achieve escapement goal. Rule 2 was you will achieve 50:50 sharing as outlined by Boldt. So, the NI side had X to catch. Sport seasons were set first, with an estimate of catch. Then, taking those into account, commercial seasons were proposed. Not set. Openings were based on information to date.

The rec seasons were set and then ran on autopilot, except for Lake WA sockeye that was intensively monitored. All adjustments for conservation were made on the commercial/net side. Since the rec harvest was a prior interception they generally continued unless it was obvious, through the updates, that the run had really crashed. From experience, WDF knew in-season management of recs worked less than poorly.

Since we were working from the same numbers and concepts the Tribes generally complied. When they didn't (when, for example, they fished into "escapement" in the model) it was because of differential run timing and the way catch was accounted for. With few exceptions, nobody purposefully fished into escapement.

This was for PS salmon. I was not involved in steelhead management which was conducted in an entirely different manner.

Most of the problems we have now, I believe, are a complete unwillingness of the managers to explain their reasons and for the users to hear what should be said.