GLG, your comment surprises me. Coho and chinook have somewhat different spawning and rearing needs and the fact wild coho have not fully recovered because there has been a moratorium on killing them has little bearing on what this potential management strategy ( ie. stop all harvesting) would have on wild chinook populations.
Coho tend to spawn and rear in small streams, many of which are urban and much more susceptible to habitat degradation, warming water, and other anthropogenic causes. Think how many Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland streams that once held robust coho populations, are now under parking lots or housing developments, or have been ruined by poor agricultural practices. Chinook however, especially interior Fraser stocks, spawn in much larger systems and often overwinter in the mainstem Fraser, giving them a bit of a buffer from the reasons coho populations are not recovering. I have worked on, camped on, and angled on most of the well-known Fraser River tributary chinook streams … I can tell you in most cases the habitat is there; what is lacking is spawners.
There is not much we can do about marine survival conditions, but putting more chinook spawners on the gravel is something that can be done, if we want to.
