I have a good friend who commercial fishes Bristol Bay for sockeye. We were shooting the breeze the other day, comparing the highs and lows of fish runs between here and Alaska. He made the comment that the high seas drift nets from Japan and Russia seemed to be on the upswing again in the bering sea and the eastern pacific. I commented that I was under the impression the coast guard had really buckled down on enforcement....especially in the early-mid 90's. He said the coast guard was limited in what they could actually do on the open seas and that indeed, it's a big ocean. He seemed convinced they are playing a part in our problems.
This is just a theory and isn't totally sound because you would think wild fish would be equally impacted(I refer to the good early showing on the WA coast).

I also wonder if the stocks being used are genetically burned out? That's also hard to swallow because many hatchery practices now have an emphasis on diversity at egg-taking time and are increasingly using in-basin stocks. Another take on this is that the hatcheries have created a breed of non-biters over time(why do you think they made it to the hatchery?)

Ultimately, I have to think that this low-water year is having some influence because it's region-wide and this is a region-wide problem. Still could make for a nice January with a good shot of rain.

Glad I started snow skiing again!