Fraser River sockeye salmon: data synthesis and cumulative impacts

without merit, I would not give these as high a priority as otherrecommendations associated with what have been identified as morelikely sources of problems.c. Downstream migration to estuary: Given recent concerns aboutdisease and emerging evidence of high mortality rates during themigration down the estuary and through the passage inside VancouverIsland, I would be inclined to elevate the priority for theserecommendations.d. Inshore migration: I would recommend a high priority for all of theserecommendations, including #13 on Harrison sockeye given the keycontrast that they seem capable of providing.e. Growth in North Pacific …: I agree that estimates of returns, etc.,continue to be important. Also, estimating abundance of arrivals at theGulf of Alaska seems likely to me to be very challenging and expensive,and hence I agree that this should not be awarded a high priority.Assessment of ocean conditions seems to be very important though,especially in light of the circumstantial nature of the evidence associatedwith the potential role of the volcanic eruption in contributing to the strong2010 returns. The uncertainty over the ecosystem consequences of theanomalously large phytoplankton production that it produced underscoresin my mind the importance of improving our collective understanding ofthis ecosystem.f. Migration back to spawning: I agree with the priority assignments tothese recommendations.Responses: All of our prioritization suggestions are preliminary, and will need to bereviewed by a well-informed panel of scientists and managers. Our responses to yourrecommendations are as follows (same lettering):a. We agree, and have increased the priority of recommendation 2, though asfor recommendation 1 we would only do this for a strategically selectedsubset of smaller CUs.b. We partly agree, and have reduced the priority of recommendation 5(conditions in rearing lakes). However, we have maintained the high priorityof recommendation 4 (smolt estimates) as we believe that it’s essential to firstdetermine the life history stages with higher levels of mortality, and then toseek the causes of such mortality. We recognize that for stocks with a historyof fry estimates only, it will be essential to continue these time series.c. For reasons mentioned under b, we have increased the priority ofrecommendation 7 (smolt survival rates), but left recommendation 8 (sizeand health of smolts) to be contingent upon the observation of poor lake toestuary smolt survival.d. We agree, as mentioned above.e. We believe that with the other measurements of sockeye abundance atvarious life stages, it should be possible to determine if there are unexpectedchanges in survival during the growth of adults in the Pacific. Then if such154