This statement of work includes three components of salmon monitoring and conservation.  The first component is Viable Salmonid Population (VSP) monitoring of listed Chinook and coho populations, which includes Coded Wire Tag (CWT) recovery along with escapement, diversity and spatial structure estimates in Washington’s Lower Columbia River (LCR) Evolutionary Significant Unit. The second component includes fisheries sampling for tags and marks in the mainstem Columbia River and tributary fisheries. The final component includes run reconstruction, which is used to evaluate past fishery and conservation actions and provide managers a forecast for fishery and conservation planning for the following year.  The PSMFC portion of this project is primarily focused on the latter two components, with less emphasis on VSP monitoring, while the WDFW portion is primarily focused on VSP monitoring.  In 2012 (Per BPA recommendation) two Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) coordinated projects (1982-013-01 and 2010-036-00) were combined into a single project and renamed the Columbia River Tag Recovery, Population Monitoring and Analysis project. This SOW, work elements, and budget are a continuation of that project.

Washington’s current tag and mark recovery program in the LCR is centered on the recovery of CWT from fisheries and escapement sampling, and development of escapement estimates primarily for Chinook salmon.  Deficiencies have been identified for the program including: 1) low escapement sample rates, 2) non-representative escapement sampling, 3) incomplete escapement sampling, and 4) bias in estimates of total escapement.  This is particularly true for coho salmon for which very limited escapement sampling occured prior to this project starting in 2010.   In addition, the application of Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags has increased from 20,000 in 1988 to over 2,000,000 in 2009.  Currently, 2% of the returning adult salmon and steelhead passing Bonneville Dam (BON) are PIT tagged.  It is a natural extension of the current CWT recovery program to include PIT tag recoveries.  This expanded program is a result of the Columbia Basin Regional Monitoring and Evaluation (RME) process and was recommended as a Fast Track Project.

The goals of this SOW are: 1) to build off of the current CWT infrastructure to address high priority deficiencies in the CWT program, 2) to expand Washington’s LCR CWT program to include a recovery program for all tags, including PIT tags, and marks sampled in fisheries and escapement programs, 3) to provide estimates for recovered PIT and CWT tags, 4) to have a single framework for tag recovery and salmon escapement monitoring programs to report on VSP metrics for Chinook and coho salmon, and 5) to make this information available to policy makers, planners, managers, and others.  This SOW builds on the existing framework and infrastructure of the current multi-state CWT recovery program along with other state, federal, and locally funded fisheries and escapement sampling programs coordinated by WDFW.

VSP MONITORING.  Washington’s LCR tributaries are monitored to estimate Chinook and coho salmon abundance, diversity, and spatial structure.  These data are needed to assess stock status, conservation efforts, fishery impacts, and evaluate hatchery programs.  The cost effective approach used by WDFW is to concurrently sample Chinook and coho salmon for CWT recoveries while gathering biological and observation data to estimate VSP indicators.  

CWT and PIT TAG FISHERIES SAMPLING.  Oregon and Washington carry out a coordinated sampling effort to collect CWTs from mature salmon and steelhead, which return to fishery (sport and commercial) and escapement areas (natural spawning grounds, hatcheries, and Bonneville Dam fishways) throughout the Columbia River Basin.  Sampled heads of tagged fish are transported to tag recovery labs at Clackamas and Olympia where the CWTs are recovered and decoded.  The CWT recovery and catch/sample information is then forwarded to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) Regional Mark Processing Center where it is validated and made available to users via the on-line ‘Regional Mark Information System' (RMIS).  

The PIT tag data will be uploaded by WDFW to the new PTAGIS web site.  The CWT and PIT release and recovery data are used to evaluate a number of administrative, management and environmental effects on salmon and steelhead.  For example, the harvest management agencies use CWT, PIT tag, and genetic data to estimate the effects of harvest regulations on populations of salmon and steelhead.  Other uses of these data include an evaluation of hatchery effectiveness including estimates of hatchery fish spawning in the wild, straying of hatchery fish, the release survival from various hatcheries and experimental action to improve hatchery effectiveness.  

FISHERIES EVALUATION & PLANNING.   CWT recovery data, fishery catch estimates, and escapement estimates in combination will be summarized and analyzed for the purpose of determining stock status of wild and natural salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River basin.  Data collected during the fishery sampling portion of this project will be used to estimate catch in commercial and sport fisheries and returns to escapement areas by species, age, and/or stock.  These catch and return estimates plus catch and effort sampling data will be included in the PSMFC's CWT recovery database.  All fishery and escapement data will be delivered to PSMFC's RMIS database.  

CWT recovery data will be used with total catch and escapement estimates to produce stock and age compositions for each fishery and escapement area and to estimate total returns by stock and age. The return by stock and age estimates provide the basis for annually estimating the return to the Columbia River mouth for all major salmonid stocks, including stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  Annual abundance estimates plus fishery stock and age composition data are essential for monitoring the status of wild/natural and hatchery produced salmonid stocks in the Columbia River basin.  These data will be incorporated into run reconstruction databases and will be provided to the U.S. v. Oregon Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for the purposes of tracking stock status of all major salmonid stocks returning to the Columbia River, including ESA-listed stocks.  The data will be made available to state agencies for use in developing Biological Assessments concerning proposed fisheries in the Columbia River basin and are commonly used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Fisheries when completing Biological Opinions regarding fisheries in the Columbia River basin.  Forecasting and run reconstruction methodology is reviewed annually by the TAC and modified as needed.  Forecasts are provided to managers for conservation and fisheries planning for the upcoming year to protect depressed or listed salmonid stocks.

This CWT and PIT tagging and recovery program is consistent with the Fish and Wildlife Program goals for monitoring and evaluation.  CWT and PIT tag recovery data also provide critical information for evaluating stock rebuilding programs under measures directed by the 2000 and 2004 Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinions, the 2008 FCRPS Biological Opinion, and the Columbia Basin tributary RME strategy developed in the Skamania Process.