I am not so sure that salmon fishing, halibut, crabs, clams, shrimp, and probably other fishes are pursued for recreation. I think that it is primarily about harvest; in a broad-brush view.

Back in the 80s there were restriction in PS on Chinook because of conservation of springers and allocation of falls. These were popularly referred to as "closures" and effort crashed. Yet, salmon fishing wasn't closed. Coho was totally open for retention. Chinook were available for C&R. What was closed was killing, and that kept folks home.

For whatever reason, many of our fishes are viewed a commodities. Perhaps it is at least partly tied to the fact that the species are harvest both for sport and commercially. To the managers, those fish need to be harvested to prevent catastrophic over-escapement. It is an interesting tightrope they walk. We need to kill 1,000 fish, but you can only kill them certain ways.

I suspect it is hard to explain to folks that "sporting ethics" of salmon fishing when, at the same time, we need to get those surplus fish out of there.