HR 2020 Chinook Mark-Selective Fishing Monitoring

PCSRF Priority 1 - WDFW Hatchery Reform: For NOAA to approve recreational fisheries on Chinook and Coho salmon in the Marine Areas of Puget Sound and the Washington Coast, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is required to conduct intensive modeling and monitoring of these fisheries. In-season fishery management, agreements with Treaty Tribes, and federal requirements to document the impacts on ESA listed salmon stocks are all required for fisheries implementation. With funding, WDFW will conduct specialized sampling programs and evaluate several data parameters using methods including dockside angler interviews (creel surveys), on-the-water boat surveys and efforts to distribute and collect voluntary Salmon Trip Reports from the angling public. The objective of this project is to evaluate and model the critical data parameters needed to assess the impacts of prosecuting the fisheries in Puget Sound and on the Washington Coast. The information collected allows fishery biologists and managers to determine how many salmon are being encountered (both kept and released), the adipose fin-clip (mark) rates by species, species composition of all encounters, unmarked retention error, legal and sub-legal sized encounter rates on Chinook salmon, total mortalities on encountered salmon and total mortalities by marked and unmarked coded-wire tag double index tag groups in these fisheries. Modeling and monitoring of this type require additional resources for the data collection and analysis of these fisheries.

The information collected allows fishery biologists and managers to determine how many salmon are being encountered (both kept and released), the adipose fin-clip (mark) rates by species, species composition of all encounters, unmarked retention error, legal and sub-legal sized encounter rates on Chinook salmon, total mortalities on encountered salmon and total mortalities by marked and unmarked coded-wire tag double index tag groups in these fisheries. Modeling and monitoring of this type require additional resources for the data collection and analysis of these fisheries.