Having grown up in logging country and partaking in that shameful, fish-killing clearcutting of yesteryear myself, I agree that a large problem with fish runs has been the decimation of their fragile environment. But when is someone going to bring up the Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean drift net fleets that sit off our boundaries (and sneak in too I am sure) and drag their 30 mi (YES, 30 MILE) long drift nets and rape the ocean???
People act like that has nothing to do with the stocks disappearing, or say since it is "International Waters" there is nothing we can do..... I say "BS" to that. They are coming and raping a resource that everyone knows starts and ends in the Americas, therefore we have a right to protect that resource. They next time (Happens all the time) they catch one of the "Squid Boats" tossing over tons of Steelhead and Salmon that "just happened to get caught in the nets", I say "Fire up the F-14 and light their arse up". I am sure after one or two of those reactions and they would find the Salmon/Steelhead didn't taste quite so good.

That is our bureaucracy for you, we know all the many problems, but we fixate on a couple of the minor ones and then wonder why all our time and millions spent are not fixing the problem.
Same with the indian fishery..... Way too many native steelhead and salmon getting caught in those nets..... But of course, we cannot even think about changing that... We are truly a weird species....

MC

Salmo G.

Ok maybe it is a complex issue, but you are a professional fish biologist, correct?

Your job is to manage fisheries scientifically, no?

I recognize it is difficult if not impossible to do anything scientifically when politicians are involved.

However, to get anysort of sensible behavior (and this is still no sure thing) out of politicians, you need to present the problem in the simplist possible terms. Also, given that there is public imput in this process, having the public understand what's going on in simple terms is also good.

So, its your job to simplify these problems for us. To make any progress from a fisheries managment standpoint shades of gray will not cut it.

If you say "this hatchery is good and that hatchery is bad and if you're not an expert you will never understand so just believe me" nobody will be satisfied.

People here are very passionate about fish . . . educate us about what is really important on this hatchery issue.