So, I was able to attend. Here's my summary:

1. Lots of talk about the need for different user groups (tribal, non-tribal, commercial, sport) to band together and show unity, including by pressuring the feds and Washington's congressional delegation to push against Alaskan/Canadian harvesters.

2. Lots of talk about how habitat is the biggest culprit, or at least the one culprit that all fishing user groups should be able to agree on.

3. A fair amount of agreement that there are too many non-human, non-Orca predators (e.g., seals, cormorants). The tribes' plan is to raise money to fund studies documenting this environmental imbalance so that we can have a solid evidentiary footing for dealing with it. Not a lot was said about how to actually deal with it, except for a recognition that selling the public on killing cute cuddly seals is a hard sell.

4. A conspicuous lack of finger-pointing among different user groups (unless you count pointing fingers up north or at the AG for fighting the culvert lawsuit).

5. There was a lot of recognition that this meeting seemed to have a lot more "let's work together" and a lot less finger pointing, but that it won't end up doing anything unless we can get the people with similar interests to *continue* working together in a sustained manner.

Overall, I think it was a very positive meeting, and shows how much better things can be when different groups get together and talk openly. The $64,000 question is whether sustained cooperation can actually get anything done.