Sacramento River Fall Run Salmon Harvest Management Recommendations by Tom Cannon
Cannon report that was submitted to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) for comment at the April 9-15 meeting in San Jose, CA
Prepared by Thomas Cannon
thomascannon0@gmail.com
*Note: NCGASA is providing a place for more information on salmon, but all of Cannon’s recommendations do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. Salmon management is a complicated issue and NCGASA strives to provide all the information that is presented to share with our membership. We hope to educate everyone with additional data and recommendations so our members can get a full picture of the decline of our fisheries.
Summary and Conclusions
I recommend adding escapement estimates and spawner-recruit forecasts for consideration in Central Valley fall-run salmon harvest management. Harvest management plans should focus more on the escapement and factors related to escapement of Sacramento River Fall Run Chinook Salmon (SRFRCS) component stocks. Total escapement is primarily a function of combined survival and harvest of each release group from the four main Sacramento fall-run salmon hatcheries plus the sum of production from many small in-river natural/wild populations. Individual spawner/recruit escapement estimates can be estimated from river surveys and hatchery counts.
The SRFRCS Index (SI) target of 122,000 adults available to the ocean fishery is not realistic nor based on sound science because SI estimates have high variance and bias, and can decline quickly in modern times within or following drought years under moderate ocean and inland harvest.
Natural-born (sometimes referred to as “wild”) elements of spawning stocks are not definable since in-river spawning stocks are predominately hatchery fish or the offspring of hatchery fish. So, the question of what is natural-produced or hatchery-produced becomes moot. The only large in-river (naturally-spawning) stock is the upper Sacramento River spawning population near Redding. That population is greatly depressed and probably headed in the direction of the upper Sacramento spring run stock – extinction at least in the “wild”genetic stock.
Current harvest management does not work well because of the heavy hatchery influence, variable in-river natural-spawning conditions, over- and unequal-harvest, variable hatchery smolt release strategies, and fishable stocks operating well below their maximum sustainable yield (MSY). The SRFR stock more often than naught becomes “over-fished”.
Click Here to download Tom Cannon’s full report
PFMC Meetings
Next PFMC Meeting that is open to the public is on Monday, March 24 at the Courtyard Marriot in Santa Rosa from 7pm to 9pm. Click Here for link.
Click Here for REVIEW OF 2021 OCEAN SALMON FISHERIES Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Document for the Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan
Click Here for PFMC April 9-15 meeting Agenda in San Jose
Click Here for PFMC April E-Portal for public comment
