Washington State at one time was called the salmon capital of the world where people from all over the world came to spend time and money trying to catch 50+pound Chinook in the Skagit R, certain parts of Puget Sound, and even bigger possibilities in the Elwha. There were the famous north coast streams and Westport. I just read last week from a NOAA study that of the 23 coastal states in the US, WA is ranked No.22 in futility in bringing in non-resident re creational fishing dollars. Oregon was the bottom dweller at No. 23.

That Hoh v Baldridge court case proves what devastating capabilities that the WA ocean fisheries can have by being able to catch salmon to escapement numbers in those areas of the three tribes described 35 years ago. Just think of the technological/electronic capabilities now.

It is no wonder that as the ocean fisheries expanded the 35+ canneries at the Columbia River and 45+ canneries of Puget Sound dwindled into oblivion.

It will be interesting to see what NOAA does to protect the PS ESA listed Chinook stocks knowing the pillage that occurs in the mixed ocean fisheries.