Pacific salmon are an extremely valuable resource on the Pacific Rim of Canada. On the Skeena River, one of six major salmon watersheds in B.C., the dollar value of the commercial catch is between ten and twenty million dollars annually. In addition, the salmon stocks provide recreational benefits for many residents of British Columbia and contribute strongly to the local recreational economy. Millions of dollars are spent annually on managing the commercial and recreational salmon fisheries; there is a current proposal by the federal government to spend several hundred million dollars enhancing the salmon stocks over the next few years. The current salmon case study has been involved in extensive modeling efforts to determine policy options for salmon management and assess these options. However, we have recently realized that despite our model's optimization techniques and the incredible elegance of our approach, we really don't know what the people of Canada want from the salmon fishery
