FY19 Salmonid Enhancement and Harvest Management Planning and Analysis

[Strait of Juan de Fuca Worksite] Actual Start Date: 01/01/21
Treaty Council staff continued to participate in harvest management activities necessary for the exercise of tribal-treaty fishing rights. Continuing activities included: preparation of stock status reports, recovery planning updates, and recovery implementation reports on progress of harvest and hatchery management of ESA-listed Puget Sound Chinook, Puget Sound Steelhead, and Hood Canal Summer Chum, as specified in approved recovery plans. This also includes technical involvement in developing harvest regulations, participation in hatchery and harvest management meetings and forums, and participation in other relevant harvest and hatchery management planning processes, as needed.

Tribal staff also conducted harvest management efforts as necessary for exercising tribal-treaty fishing rights or native-subsistence fishing of anadromous salmonids. This included attending and participating at relevant meetings and conferences and and reviewing fishery data for harvest management planning purposes.

[Dungeness Worksite] Actual Start Date: 07/16/21
The Tribe continued to assess the Dungeness Chinook Supplementation Program by evaluating coded wire tag recoveries and other information from carcass sampling to determine proportions of wild and hatchery Chinook returns spawning naturally, comparing to the proportions of wild and hatchery Chinook returns spawned for broodstock purposes, and using the information to adapt and plan future approaches to the supplementation/broodstock programs.

The goal of our harvest management planning continues to be to develop strategies that, when implemented, will protect ESA-listed salmonids, and produce regulations that ultimately benefit ESA-listed salmonids. The harvest management planning, updates and analyses are recommended in approved recovery plans.

Evaluating carcass and tag data allows restoration planners to determine contributions from the naturally produced portion of Chinook returns, detect trends, and gage effects of the supplementation efforts on boosting abundance of Chinook populations. Analyses of wild verses hatchery returns will be used for adapting and planning future approaches to the supplementation and broodstock programs.