Area 9/10 chinook closing early

The reality is I wanted to post that pic somewhere and felt this was as good a thread as any :p

Apparently you wanted to post it TWICE!   

-Allen

The few hundred wild fish caught (and released!) by recreational fisherman have no significant impact compared to Tribal and Commercial fisheries.  (Realistically, Tribal fisheries are a commercial enterprise as well)

it is likely there were more than a few hundred wild fish c&r'd.  also, the impacts stretch from neah bay to sekiu to port angeles to area 9/10.  the closer you get into puget sound the tighter the impacts are, both from proximity to endangered chinook runs and from impacts being eaten up further west. 

the amount of wild fish being c&r'd inside the strait before they reach inner puget sound is significant.  like many of our saltwater selective fisheries there are times when one has to sort through quite a few fish to find clipped fish to keep.  it is a balance between keeping fishing open for longer vs. shorter (keep any fish) seasons.

I have a good friend, and colleague, that represented NOAA in the salmon recovery effort for the PNW region.  He use to sit in those endless meeting and try to calculate the tax-payer dollars spent per fish saved.  Finally he got so depressed by the whole process that he moved to California and got as far away from the politics of Salmon as possible.  The what-ifs of the whole process are argued in closed door meetings to a nauseating extent, and likely will be until the last fish is gone from planet earth. Personally, I just try to enjoy them while their here.