Well it sure ain't on the WA coast!

These guys should consider themselves VERY lucky.


...


Perusing the most recent PSC chinook technical committee reports today.

https://www.psc.org/publications/technical-reports/technical-committee-reports/chinook/

For reference, the CTC uses Queets fall chinook as the main indicator stock for the WA coast. Here's how the PSC exploitation and escapement analysis shakes out for coastal kings during the most recent 8 seasons with a full run reconstruction.... harvest years 2009-2016.

56.4% of total pre-harvest adult production is exploited in fisheries throughout AK BC and the WA coasts.

That pile of dead fish splits out like so...
AK = 48%
BC = 24%
WA = 28%
.... bottom line 72% of the harvest has taken place before a single WA coastal king has a chance to swim south past Cape Flattery.

Singling out the WA harvest alone.... (27/28) 96% are taken by tribal nets.... and only (1/28) 4% by hook and line, virtually all caught by marine trollers. The miniscule in-river rec fishery isn't even big enough to register on the CTC table as 0.1% of the total exploitation. The marine troll harvest is split 2:1 commercial over sport. In other words, commercial interests take 98.7% while sport trollers take only 1.3% of the WA coastal kings actually caught here at home.

...

Looking at the comm:rec split from top to bottom AK to BC to WA:

Rec trollers take (10.2/56.4) 18% of the total harvest. Local WA coast sport trollers take a measly (0.2/10.2) 2% of all the rec-caught kings originating from the WA coast. 98% of the sport-caught WA coastal kings have already vanished into some black hole in AK/BC before the first rod-down out of Neah, La Push, or Westport.

Commercials take (46.2/56.4) 81.9% of the total harvest. Out of that pile of dead WA coastal kings
AK takes 51%
BC takes 16%
WA takes 33%
.... bottom line 2 out of every 3 commercially-caught WA coastal kings have already disappeared in northern-intercept commercial fisheries before they get anywhere close to home waters.

J F C, now we know what the SRKW's must feel like. Sux balz to be at the end of the buffet line. Thanks for the opportunity, AK and BC.... thanks.