FY 2019 SRSC Implementation and Monitoring of Skagit Salmon Recovery Goals: Test Fisheries

This project provided funds for a Field Manger and Fisheries Technicians to conduct a single-boat test fishery for Chinook salmon at one site in the lower Skagit River, one day/week from the first week of May through the last week of August, and a coho/chum test fishery at 3 sites from the middle of August through the first week of November. The test fishery was conducted with a river skiff and fished with a drift gillnet.

All test fisheries were conducted at the Blake’s drift in the lower Skagit River. The Chinook test fishery was conducted in two temporal segments that begin with each high tide and continue for 3 hours after high tide (i.e., 6 hours total per test day). Test fisheries for Coho and Chum began with the PM high tide and continued for 12 hours.

The test fishery provides information that addresses all major categories of limiting factors: habitat, harvest, and artificial production. All project objectives associated with test fisheries align with NOAA priorities 1, 2, and 3 for CY2020-2021. Limiting factors affecting the recovery goals of Puget Sound salmon stocks include habitat, harvest, and artificial production. All project objectives associated with test fisheries will provide invaluable information that will allow quantitative assessments of whether management decisions or actions within each category are having positive or negative effects on the productivity of target stocks of ESA. Therefore, management decisions related to each limiting factor category can be adaptively altered based on the outcome of analyses of data from test fisheries.