RE:Here Fishy, Fishy
Tyler's point about predation by pacific horse mackeral during warm water years scared the begeezus out of me. I used to make the trek to Neah Bay and the straits each year and can recall some years when the macks were running like small tidal waves eating everything in their path. It was impressive that the coho were actually faster swimmers than the macks and you could see the silvers strafing at double speed through the compressed leading wave of krill and herring being pushed by the wave of schooling macks. Seeing that was one of the profound memories I have of being out on Swiftsure in fact. Then there was the gathering of several pods of orca where I was able to film 75 or so in a giant feed-fest. (that'll go to mpeg one of these days) The true albacore were less than half the usual distance from shore, in fact they were being sold at the docks at Neah Bay for cheap $$. I bought one and canned it using apple cider vinegar, pickling spice and olive oil at 15psi for 90 minutes and I thought I'd never be able to eat canned tuna again - it was so superior to canned tuna.
But my point was, years when these chomping machines are around inshore I can't imagine smolt survival being healthy. Although steelhead probably behave a lot different, I gotta wonder if these factors play a part. As chief Seattle said "all things are connected".
Then again the shifting of thermocline zones in the open pacific have historically been found to affect steelhead migration and behavior, and they might just be out there getting bigger, and meaner, and....