Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Development and Implementation of a Monitoring Program for Mark-selective Chinook Salmon Fisheries in Puget Sound, Washington Mark Baltzell Pete McHugh • Laurie Peterson Steve Thiesfeld April 1, 2009 Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Topics • Introduction/Background: mark-selective fisheries • Overview of WDFW Puget Sound Sampling Unit’s comprehensive monitoring program for Chinook mark-selective fisheries. • Methods • Results • Conclusions • Questions

Production of Marked Chinook • Adipose fin-clip; external mark indicating hatchery origin fish. • Marking program consistent with hatchery reform practices.

Mark-SelectiveFisheries

Marine Areas with Chinook MSFs Summer Seasons Winter Seasons • Higher effort • Some are quota-managed • Directed at maturing migrants • Fewer fish handled per kept • Multiple species encountered • Lower effort (weather driven) • Directed at resident “blackmouth” • More fish handled per kept (size) • Mostly single species encounters

Chinook Mark-Selective Fishery Objectives No increase in wild stock impacts Increase Angler Opportunity Increase Hatchery Fish Harvest Sample, Monitor, Enforce All Fisheries Reduce wild stock impacts if possible

Evaluating Selective Chinook Fisheries Key Objectives: • Determine if the data needed to estimate critical selective fishery parameters can be collected. • Evaluate if sample sizes needed to produce estimates with agreed levels of precision can be realistically obtained. • Enable evaluation and planning of potential future mark-selective fisheries.

Critical Data Parameters • Mark rate in the fishery - from estimates of marked and unmarked encounters. • Number marked and unmarked fish retained. • Number marked and unmarked fish released. • Number of the Chinook encounters that are of sub-legal size (less than 22 inches total length). • Stock composition of the mortalities– estimated by CWT and DNA. • KEY CHALLENGE: Indirect estimation of impacts on unmarked fish that are caught and released.

WDFW Puget Sound Sampling Unit Selective Fishery Monitoring Program

WDFW Puget Sound Sampling Unit Selective Fishery Monitoring Program Size Measures; Select Sites On-the-water Surveys Dockside Sampling Out-of-frame effort proportion Test Fishing

Fishing methods WDFW Puget Sound Sampling Unit Selective Fishery Monitoring Program Length, age CWTs Size Measures; Select Sites On-the-water Surveys Dockside Sampling Out-of-frame effort proportion Test Fishing

DocksideSampling • Recover CWT’s from salmon that detect positive for a tag. • At least 20% sample rate is the goal. • Length measurements and scale samples. • Fishing method data.

Fishing methods WDFW Puget Sound Sampling Unit Selective Fishery Monitoring Program Length, age CWTs Size Measures; Select Sites On-the-water Surveys Dockside Sampling Out-of-frame effort proportion Test Fishing Length, age (all) Chinook Size/mark-status comp. VTRs DNA sampling

TestFishing • Encounters by species. • Chinook mark rates and encounter rates by size/mark status. • DNA samples on all Chinook. • Scale and length samples on all Chinook. • Emulate the recreational fleet (gear types, locations fished).

Fishing methods WDFW Puget Sound Sampling Unit Selective Fishery Monitoring Program Length, age CWTs Size Measures; Select Sites On-the-water Surveys Dockside Sampling Out-of-frame effort proportion Test Fishing Total salmon encounters Length, age (all) Chinook Size/mark-status comp. DNA sampling Total Fishery Impacts

Chinook Size/Mark-Status • Legal-size marked (LM) • Legal-size unmarked (LU) • Sublegal-size marked (SM) • Sublegal-size unmarked (SU) Dockside Sampling On-the-water Surveys Test Fishing Total Chinook Encounter Estimates (Retained + Released) Apportion Total Encounters into 4 Size/Mark groups Apply size-specific release mortality rates • 15% Legal • 20% Sublegal Compare to Model (FRAM) predictions Total Estimated Fishery Impacts

Voluntary Trip Reports • Encounters by species. • Chinook mark rates and encounter rates by size/mark status.

Estimated Unmarked Chinook Mortalities (Summer Fisheries)Providing Opportunity and Meeting Conservation Goals

Unmarked Mortality Estimates vs. Modeled (FRAM) Predictions Unmarked Chinook impacts: similar to or less than model predictions.

Legal-size Marked Chinook Estimates vs. Modeled (FRAM) Predictions Legal-sized, marked Chinook harvest: consistent with model predictions.

Test Fishery ResultsEmulating the Fleet Mark Rates Total Lengths

CWT Recoveries For All Chinook Mark-Selective Fisheries in Puget Sound 2005-08 N = 1184

CWT Recoveries for Chinook Mark Selective Fisheries in the Strait of Juan de Fuca 2003-08

Adequacy of Sampling ProgramSample Size Goals • High percentage landed catch and angler trips sampled overall, exceeding the 20% sample rate target: • 38% (winter fisheries) • 31% (summer fisheries)

Adequacy of Sampling ProgramPrecision of EstimatesCoefficient of Variation (CV) • Opportunities to make sampling more efficient & cost-effective?

Conclusions • Pilot selective Chinook fisheries enabled recreational fishing opportunities while meeting the conservation constraints defined for Puget Sound Chinook. • Sampling programs collected critical information necessary for evaluating and planning future pilot selective Chinook fisheries. • Measured impacts of the fishery were either less than or comparable to pre-season expectations (FRAM model) for unmarked Chinook salmon. • Enabled implementation and assessment of our comprehensive selective fishery monitoring program in Puget Sound marine areas.

Sampling ProgramConclusions • Dockside sampling and test fishery efforts succeeded in: • Achieving agreed-to sampling objectives. • Yielding precise estimates of key fishery parameters. • Test fishery emulated the fleet • Continue feedback loop to test boats --spatial data collection and dockside fishing method question.

If you would like to know more…..the place to find all of our documentation on Chinook MSF’s http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/ selective/techniques/ technical_documents.htm

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife