Can't see that far into the future, but my wish before my dying day is that the issue of outside mixed-stock harvest gets a SERIOUS challenge from a credible group. CCA represents the catalyst that could one day make our bass-ackward harvest infrastructure on the West Coast a thing of the past.

My hope is that we don't wait until the point of utter collapse to finally see the error of our ways before curtailing exploitation of mixed salmon stocks in the rich feeding grounds off northern BC and SE-AK.

When Atlantic salmon stocks collapsed, a huge effort was made to better understand their life history. Researchers discovered that the great salar mixing bowl where most of the stocks converged to forage was off West Greenland. Once that critical discovery was made, fishing off West Greenland was drastically curtailed in an attempt to better conserve mixed stocks fattening up in their ocean nursery. Today West Greenland is managed as a sanctuary of sorts and accounts for less than 1-2% of the total exploitation on Atlantic salmon stocks. See the graph below to see the rape of this resource and the results of voluntary restraint.



Imagine the chinook run-sizes we would be enjoying in the PNW if BC and AK would just lay off our fish. We've invested billions in salmon recovery with little fruit for our efforts... the lions share of the benefits fall on our neighbors to the north.

Imagine the full diversity of chinook life histories once again being expressed in robust populations of returning adults..... 4-, 5-, and even 6-ocean kings making their way back home instead of being plucked off by some troller as an immature feeder fish. Imagine catching a REAL June hog out of the CR.... or a mythical 100 Elwha native. It can be made to happen, but only if we have the resolve to make it so.