Well just as I predicted, the 501 dead chinook allocation for the bay has already been exceeded... and we are only two weeks into the kill season! Thank God the first two days were a total bust or we would be far worse off!
Here's the fNp statistical analysis of the Coastal Creel to date.
Westport: 4 out of 15 days reported... 28 kings retained in the creel. Extrapolate that exploitation rate to 15 days, and you get 105 dead kings.
Johns: 8 out of 15 days reported... 52 kings retained in the creel. Extrapolate to 15 days and you get 98 dead kings.
28th St: 8 out of 15 days reported... 105 kings retained in the creel. Extrapolate to 15 days and you get 196 dead kings.
105 + 98 + 196 = 399 dead kings observed from the three major ports.
Actual catch is bigger since at best the creel only captures conservatively 80% of the catch on any given day (must be much lower at Johns as I fished 6 days and only had my catch counted once). 399 / 0.8 = 499
Estimated harvest stands at 499 kings... and that is being extremely conservative! Some bay kings were off-loaded at Cosi as well, and I didn't even count those.
I hope some of you WDFW lurkers are reading this right now. Region 6 Staff should be ashamed of the 2007 season they put forward. That's 3 years in a row of royally bumbled chinook harvest management in Grays Harbor! Keep it up boys, and we'll harvest this run to extinction just like all the rest!

_________________________
"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)
"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)
The Keen Eye MDLong Live the Kings!