This contract is a companion to the TTM Compilation project led by the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP), BPA and KWA Ecological Sciences, Inc. as the contractor.

These funds are described in the attached budget and SOW which includes a full Critical Path work plan approved by all parties.  These are available in the attachments to the companion contract.

The Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP), PNAMP Fish Population Work Group and the PNAMP Steering Committee has recommended, and many of the key agencies involved with tagging, telemetry and marking programs has concurred, that region, and specifically, the NPCC Fish and Wildlife program would benefit from a comprehensive, comparative review of different tagging technologies utilized by the program. A review focused on past, ongoing, and potential future tagging projects in the Columbia River Basin would be useful to determine if there are potential efficiencies to be gained as a result of developing tagging technologies. The various fish tagging projects for survival and migration studies, as well as hatchery and harvest programs, funded by Bonneville and the Corps will be included in the review.  Thus:

The goal of this Contract is to provide standardization, cost effectiveness and coordination between and among all tagging, marking and telemetry programs in the Columbia Basin, and beyond.

The product(s) of this effort will be design, implementation and data management guidance recommendations for TTM project and program recommendations in the form of PNAMP recommendations via varied and published formats.

Specifically, this work will fulfill one of the four priority work products from the 2007-2009 Pacific Northwest Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP) work plan. And, this project will address the current ad-hoc nature of tagging, telemetry and marking programs throughout the Columbia River Basin with application beyond these borders.

The objectives of the review are to:

Recommend specific types of tags, interrogation technology and external/internal marking for use in the Fish and Wildlife Program project review process, regional research, monitoring and evaluation programs, Biological Opinions, Recovery Plan harvest, hatchery, hydro, international agreements, sampling programs, and other management needs;

Facilitate coordination of fish tagging, telemetry, remote sensing and marking projects and programs;

Encourage the development and use of innovative technologies relevant to program needs;

Provide economies-of-scale;

Provide opportunities for cost savings, and.

Provide for data comparability, access and analytical continuity

The first task for the PNAMP TTMP project will be to unite and organize the technical and design discussions currently being led by the Tagging and Telemetry Focus Group.  This group has a single, short-term product that seeks to describe tagging technology for use by NOAA and the ACOE in the near-term at large hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River.  

Similarly, the USGS is working at a broader level on telemetry and tagging and the PNAMP FPM work group is working together with USGS on an expert symposium scheduled for the American Fisheries Society (AFS) meeting in August of this year in San Francisco.

Finally, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPPC) has two staff working on a briefing paper, in coordination with the TTFC, (NOAA, ACOE, PNAMP’s FPM work group, USGS and others) for the NPCC describing portions of the tagging, telemetry and marking programs in the Columbia Basin.  PNAMP has agreed to participant and to “pick up” where NPCC and NOAA leave off.  USGS wishes to continue to work on this and has agreed to work with PNAMP in doing so to host a summer 2007 expert symposium, workshops as necessary and protocol guidance in the form of a standardized techniques manual, handbook or book.

Combined, the FPM work group will work with and within these processes to facilitate a more comprehensive and fully descriptive accounting of these programs in the Pacific Northwest and provide standardized design and technological protocols in the form of a handbook, possibly in co-authorship with USGS and AFS.

Specific work elements are summarized below:

Objective 1:  Convene the PNAMP Fish Population Monitoring Work Group to scope the process to provide a programmatic review the tagging, telemetry and marking programs in the PNW, with

                     initial emphasis on the Columbia Basin.

Objective 2:  Present a list of protocol, methods and design topics to the FPM TTM subcommittee.  

Objective 3: Assignments of topical areas and authorship teams.