Wild Steelhead Protection

Last week the Washington state Fish and Wildlife Commission imposed a two-year moratorium on the taking of wild steelhead (notable by their intact adipose fin). The Fish and Wildlife Commission is a citizens’ board appointed by the governor, and it seems Peter Van Gytenbeek — a commissioner and the former publisher of Flyfishing in Saltwaters magazine — initiated the action with a call for a permanent ban on wild steelhead “retention.”
Apparently these days the true wild steelhead fisheries are limited to the Olympic Peninsula’s Quillayute, Bogachiel, Sol Duc, Calawah, and Hoh rivers, and the Green river.