By your reasoning we need to wait several more years and view the returns to see what effect we had on the spawners while we were fishing.Without an agreed upon escapement number from last year, they can not and should not submit a plan for the next 10. They have to have those numbers to show how the population is doing and to show what effect the seasons have or have not had and probably more important than anything, to have a complete plan to apply with. If you left out 1 year of data then the appearance that you have not done your due diligence is there and it would be acted on by a group. Further, the first comment would be that it is incomplete and NMFS will review it when all the infomation is there. It may not make sense to you but this is pretty clear to me.
From my understanding the issue likely comes from a Biop written for USFWS for Bull trout. This brings up the concern that bull trout encounters from fishermen in boats will be too high. I know that this seems ridiculous, it is ridiculous.