Fraser River sockeye salmon: data synthesis and cumulative impacts

Response: We have added such a discussion to Section 4.7.A comment on pagination – it’s confusing to have each section start at page 1. Below Iwill refer to the page numbers within each section, followed by the pdf electronic pagenumber.Response: We have corrected this pagination issue. The Executive Summary appears firstand is not paginated. The main report (including all appendices except Appendix 6) isnumbered continuously. We have maintained the original page numbering for Appendix 6(Workshop Report) for consistency since it is a stand-alone report that has also beenreleased on its own.P. 4 / pdf 12 of the Executive Summary brings up a question concerning the terms ofreference. “While there are some survival estimates for acoustically tagged smolts,these data (which in any case only cover a few stocks) were not analyzed by any of theCohen Commission technical studies.” The published studies of acoustically taggedsmolts, e.g. smolts from Cultus Lake, are very relevant, even if not analyzed by any ofthe technical studies. The Statement of Work in Appendix 1 of this report does clearlyfocus on the other reports as the basis for material, and the authors are clear about thislater on (pdf p. 21). However, I think it’s a shame to ignore information that has beenpublished in peer-reviewed journals, just because it slipped through the cracks of theother technical reports (more on this later). There’s an additional limitation with thisapproach, which the authors are too polite to say: some of the technical reports thatthey rely on are much weaker than others, and it’s a shame to be unable to fill in thegaps left by some of them.I’m not sure what to recommend here. The authors have followed their Statement ofWork and cannot be faulted for taking a clear approach that was doable within theirtimeframe. But if there’s room for them to fill gaps left by other reports based onpublished literature here and there, I hope they and the Commission will consider thispossibility.Response: We have indeed focused our efforts on synthesizing results from the CohenCommission Technical Reports, according to the Statement of Work, and on results fromthe recent PSC workshop on Fraser River sockeye salmon. There was neither sufficienttime nor resources to complete a comprehensive literature review of information beyondthose sources discussed in the Technical Reports. Where reviewers have suggested otherinformation sources that were not included in the Technical Reports, but may be veryrelevant (e.g. the studies of acoustically tagged smolts from Cultus Lake), we have addedreferences to our report.p. 5 / pdf 13. “The evidence presented suggests that sockeye salmon in the Strait ofGeorgia have little direct exposure to human activities and development, leading to aconclusion that it is unlikely that these factors have contributed to the decline of FraserRiver sockeye salmon.” I would argue that exposure to salmon farms in the upper Strait158