Summary of Kintama’s Proposed Contract Work for the COAST Project, 2012

From 2006 to 2011, Kintama Research developed and tested an acoustic telemetry array to directly estimate estuarine and early marine survival of juvenile Columbia River spring Chinook salmon. The Coastal Ocean Acoustic Salmon Tracking (COAST; formerly POST; project # 2003-114-00) Array is currently the only economically feasible option for documenting salmon movements in the coastal ocean, estimating survival in the early marine phase of the life history, and addressing a number of BiOp RPA’s (52.2, 55.1, 55.2, 55.8, 58.1, 61.1, 61.2). The project has been tentatively identified for defunding under the NWPCC Fish & Wildlife Program for 2012, with monies provided to support:
i) Removal of Kintama- and BPA-owned receiver equipment from deployed ocean arrays to fulfil permit requirements.
ii) Analysis & write up of 2011 field results, a final multi-year report, and submission of journal articles for peer review.
iii) Contribution to the joint Ocean Synthesis Report (with NOAA and DFO) mandated by the NPCC for the Fish & Wildlife Ocean’s projects, including meetings and workshops.
iv) Participation in the NPCC Fish Tagging Review Forum.

i) Removal of Equipment
Kintama upgraded acoustic receiver firmware and re-deployed coastal ocean arrays at three ocean locations in 2011. No funding was identified at that time for removal of these arrays because the equipment is designed for multi-year use and recovery is time-consuming and expensive.  The three locations are Lippy Point (northwest Vancouver Island, British Columbia – 45 receiver locations), Willapa Bay (Washington – 70 receiver locations), and Cascade Head (Oregon – 91 receiver locations).  Equipment on these arrays must be retrieved to meet both legal stipulations for removal that are part the original permits, and ethical obligations to not abandon scientific equipment in the ocean.

ii) Reports and Publications
Most of the data analysis and write-up of the annual report  for the 2011 tagging year will occur in the 2012 fiscal year (FY).  Technical analysis and write-up starts after all the data is recovered from the marine arrays, and so almost all work on 2011 data occurs in the 2012 fiscal year.  A multi-year final report on our finding from 2006-2011 will also be submitted within the FY 2012. In addition, we will continue to produce peer-reviewed journal articles that are based on our work completed under project number 2003-114-00.

iii) Ocean Synthesis Report
Kintama’s participation in the joint NOAA/CDFO/Kintama Ocean Synthesis Report is ongoing. A draft report is presently being developed and reviewed by the three ocean project proponents.  The final report will be submitted in late December. A presentation of the report by the proponents to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council is scheduled for February, 2012. Following review by the NWPCC and the ISRP, Kintama will continue to participate in any requests regarding the report. We expect that this process will extend into spring 2012 at which time it is our understanding that a final decision will be made on the funding of the three ocean projects.  

iv) NPCC Fish Tagging Forum
A tagging forum is planned to review the various tagging methodologies now available, and to assess relative performance and cost for addressing Columbia Basin salmon recovery efforts.  We will participate in future meetings relevant to the use of acoustic tagging technology in the Columbia River Basin.