FY 2018 Implementation and Monitoring of Skagit Salmon Recovery Goals: Harvest Management

The primary components of this work plan include post-season fishery performance evaluation; preseason forecast development for hatchery and wild components of Skagit Chinook salmon management units; participation in preseason harvest management meetings including the Pacific Salmon Commission, Pacific fishery management council, and North of Falcon meetings; review of treaty and non-treaty fishery model inputs that are used to project impacts on wild and hatchery Skagit Chinook salmon to ensure fisheries are being planned ; review and comment on the Chinook annex of the 2019 Pacific Salmon Treaty; participation in in-season management of treaty and non-treaty salmon fisheries occurring in Puget Sound (e.g. evaluating in season catch estimates relative to preseason harvest projections, participating in co-manager meetings to determine if management actions are necessary); and development of a new draft of the management unit profile for Skagit River Spring and Summer/Fall Chinook for inclusion into the draft harvest management plan for Puget Sound Chinook that is currently undergoing review by NOAA.

The limiting factor that this project addresses is harvest, and the purpose of the project is to provide the information that allows managers to conduct fisheries on harvestable fish, with low enough impacts that harvest is removed as a limiting factor on species recovery. Achieving project objectives will insure that impacts of annually-negotiated fisheries regimes achieve the management reference points for all salmon stocks returning to the Skagit River system, including escapement and harvest objectives outlined in local resource management plans and harvest limits outlined in Chinook and Coho AABM Agreements of the Pacific Salmon Treaty, and are therefore low enough to meet abundance based management reference points for Chinook and steelhead to recover to delisting levels (as long as complementary habitat and artificial production actions are taken) and for Puget Sound coho, chum, sockeye, and pinks to remain at healthy levels. Finally, this project will allow us to map progress toward Chinook recovery and will enable timely implementation of management actions in light of significant changes in stock productivity.

Because harvest could potentially be a significant limiting factor to the maintenance of productivity levels required by Recovery Plans of ESA listed Pacific salmon, all project objectives provide critical information required for responsible management of harvestable fish stocks in the Skagit.