Purely out of curiosity, Carcassman, have you ever fished the Elwha?

Yes, a number of times.

As an example of Elwha Chinook:

Looking at the charts in the Puget Sound Chinook Harvest Management Plan, the biggest chunk of Elwha Chinook goes to AK/BC, then SUS leaving zero local Elwha fishery.

In the last 2 decades the Elwha has made escapement goal of 2900 Chinook 2 times, but look who keeps on fishing.

In our haste to beat up on the Tribes we ignore the real killers.

you mean us? humans?

arent the tribes humans too tho? and dont they sell their fish for profit? were as sport fishers basically "live like they were accustomed to" and feed their families with their catch?

My point was that folks are quick to blame all salmon ills on gill netting in rivers while the most damage done to the long-term stock composition, age, and size now occurs in the marine mixed stock fisheries. The tribal fisheries are an easy target because they are obvious.

Most managers that I have interacted with agree that a well regulated and accounted terminal fishery on adult fish is the biologically best way to manage. May not be the most popular, many of the fish are not chromers, and the often don't bite as aggressively but it is the best way to manage for the fish.

And the Tribes did a lot of trading of fish for other needs.