BR, a lot of the the comments I made came from the 104 page report on cutty populations/etc...did you read any of that?
Heres the link again:
http://www.shim.bc.ca/cutthroat/ct.pdfAs well, I have commercial fished, sport fished salmon and steelhead (for more than 20 years), volunteered at the seymour hatchery (on and off since 2002), I took genetics courses up to 3rd year, etc. A lot of my comments come from things I pick up from people involved in the industry like a family friend who (last time I checked) is on the board of the Greater Georgia Basin Steelhead Recovery Program as well as one of the directors of the Seymour hatchery.
Anyhow, I wanted to address a statement Coho Killer made:" if the cutthroat weRE in that much trouble the retention would be ZERO? "
As Marmot points out, DFO and MOE are both very REACTIVE. Just look at the sockeye fishery or even better yet, east coast cod...these guys have proven time and again that they are reactive not proactive. The seymour hatchery fought a long time to have the steelhead run closed to retention ( JUST LAST YEAR IT WAS OPEN FOR 2 FISH A DAY)!!! Certainly the seymour can't have a healthier population of steelhead than the vedder, but for the longest time it was a 2 fish daily limit! Another prime example of the management team you place so much faith in, not having a clue.