The Select Area Fisheries Evaluation (SAFE) Project was initiated and funded by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in 1993, following the recommendation of the Northwest Power Planning Council to investigate the potential for terminal fisheries on the lower Columbia River. A primary goal of the project was to develop efficient terminal fishery harvest opportunities on salmon in the Lower Columbia while minimizing impacts to non-target stocks, particularly the upriver stocks under federal protection by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The evaluation of various sites, stocks, and rearing and release methods in the years since 1993 resulted in the current SAFE area production and fishery projects at four sites: Youngs Bay, Blind Slough and Tongue Point in Oregon, and Deep River in Washington. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is the SAFE project co-sponsor managing the Washington program sited at Deep River while the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Clatsop County Fisheries (CCF) are co-managers of the Oregon SAFE program sites. The project was restructured and renamed to Select Area Fisheries Enhancement in 2007 to reflect increased project emphasis on maximizing the production, fishery and conservation benefits of the programs at each site.
  
The WDFW share of the $1.891 million FY 2011 BPA budget for the project is $553,300, the vast majority (76%) of which goes toward fish production and fish marking.  Managing and monitoring the commercial and recreational fisheries consumes 7% of those funds while another 13% are used to evaluate and report on project goals.  Only 4% of the funds are spent on project administration. WDFW’s current production goal is 350,000 spring Chinook and 400,000 coho salmon smolts to be released from Deep River net pens in the spring of 2011. In addition, about 350,000 coho from reprogrammed Mitchell Act Production are also expected to be released from the Deep River Net pens under Mitchell Act funding.

This contract year is unique for the WDFW portion of the SAFE program in that the contract duration is 10 months (December through September) instead of the normal 12 months. This was done to reset the contract ending date to September 30, 2011 which will match that of the other project sponsor agencies (ODFW and CCF). The contact ending date was previously November 30 for the WDFW contract because of two recent years in which a 1-month no-cost contract extension was applied to the WDFW contract. The result was that the contract year for WDFW in 2010 was December through November, while it was October through September (standard federal fiscal year) for ODFW and CCF. Thus, beginning in FY 2012 all three sponsors will be back in synchrony regarding contract fiscal years, which aids in coordination and consistency in reporting and contract administration activities. However because the current FY 2011 contract (Dec-Sep) is not active in October and November, there are milestones in some work elements that are absent from this contract year. This includes coho spawner survey work typically done in October and November, and application of coded wire tags to spring Chinook and coho which usually takes place in October.

As reflected in the budget, the production, marking and release of spring Chinook and coho from the Deep River pens is once again the primary objective for 2011. Since the ultimate goal of that production is adult harvest, sampling and assessing the abundance and stock composition of the catch during the spring and fall fisheries is also a key 2011 objective. Objectives to evaluate other project goals include assessments of:  the effect of the net pen rearing site on the local environment, the numbers of unharvested SAFE-origin adults found in local Washington tributaries (e.g., Grays and Elochoman rivers), and the numbers of Deep River-origin adults caught in Deep River versus other fisheries and hatchery facilities. Results of the production and assessment goals will be documented in the next progress report that will cover  the period of October 2009 through September 2012, produced in collaboration with ODFW and CCF. Additional coordination with ODFW and CCF staff will occur during bi-monthly meetings and in other communications as needed to achieve cohesive management of production, fisheries, and conservation goals of the overall SAFE project. Project administration activities for WDFW will include documentation of the annual Hatchery Production Plan, updating the Hatchery and Genetic Management Plan (HGMP; for ESA compliance), establishing annual agreements/contracts for Deep River net pen towing services and for the net pen site lease and access agreement, and completing periodic status reports for BPA using their online project management application, PISCES.