I agree that purse seines will have a significantly lower morality at the time of release than gillnets, but purse seines are very hard on salmon in salt water, and in what are estuaries like the LCR. Purse seine webbing is thicker and knotted, and causes significant descaling of salmon. Subsequent fungal infection would be the norm, not the exception.

For example, there is a reason why all the successful salmon population studies on the Skagit River capture fish by beach seining at Lyman or Hamilton. The fish's scales become "water hardened" after they move 26 miles upriver, above tidewater, and develop a thicker slime layer. Those same salmon captured by any method in the Bay or in the river's tidewater experience a very high mortality rate.

Sg