Fraser River sockeye salmon: data synthesis and cumulative impacts

More specifically, the extended research program should be co-ordinated with a U.S. programcovering those areas of the Alaskan continental shelf containing high sockeye densities. Sincemuch of the research will augment existing research programs, funding of current programsshould be maintained. Further, recommendations for research should be directly compared tocurrent monitoring and research to determine expenditures and assess their relative merits. Asemphasized in the PSC Report, new data collection and analysis techniques exist that wouldfacilitate research efforts and increase efficiency in effort and cost.5.2.2 Synthesis of recommendations from Cohen Commission TechnicalReportsTable 5.2-1 is a synthesis of research and monitoring recommendations, based on the PSC report,discussions at the Cohen Commission workshop, the Commission’s Technical reports, and thiscumulative effects assessment. We have organized these recommendations by life history stage,building on the structure used in the PSC report. However, each recommendation should be seenas a component of a fully integrated, multi-disciplinary research program, essential tounderstanding the cumulative effects of multiple factors on the abundance of returning salmon.Specific research and monitoring recommendations for uncertainties related to aquaculture arenot included in detail in Table 5.2-1, as the Commission Technical reports on this potentialstressor were not available. Aquaculture will be considered in an addendum to this report.In addition to improving the information available for each life history stage, we stress theimportance of improving our ability to rapidly organize these data into a geographically andthematically linked form, and to conduct cumulative assessments which integrate effects over theentire sockeye life cycle through an appropriate mix of models and data analyses. We note thatthe database developed for this project (described in Appendix 3), as well as the databasesdeveloped by individual researchers working on Commission Technical Reports, are preliminarybut important steps towards the goal of an integrated database. However there are some seriouslimitations to the types of indicators available for various stressors, in terms of their specificityfor various stressors, as well as spatial and temporal coverage.One practical strategy towards the goal of an integrated database would be to continue existingtopic-specific databases (e.g., climate data, ocean conditions, stock information, contaminants,habitat data, pathogens), each maintained by the entities that have collected these data, but linkkey fields of each one to an integrated, interdisciplinary, geo-referenced database. The integrateddatabase would periodically grab key variables from the topic-specific databases, and store thesedata within a structure that catalyzed cumulative, rapid assessments across stressors and lifehistory stages. The advantage of this approach is that any updates made to topic-specific105