Fraser River sockeye salmon: data synthesis and cumulative impacts

o Changes inside Strait of Georgia were rated as less likely than in the PSCfindings, and were not seen as major factor for the low returns of sockeye in 2009.o Factors outside Strait of Georgia (especially in Queen Charlotte Sound, asopposed to the open ocean) are more likely to have contributed to declines insockeye, and were seen as a major factor for the low returns in 2009.o Wider ranges of likelihood were expressed for contaminants, freshwater factors,marine influences, mammal predation, and delayed density dependent mortality.o Diseases were considered to be less important by workshop participants,excluding any influence of salmon farms / sea lice (which was not evaluated atthis workshop).o Better evidence was provided for contaminants, whose overall importance wasthought to be less than reported by PSC.o Climate change, which was not in the PSC report, was thought to be possible orlikely for the overall declines, and unlikely to likely for the low returns in 2009.o Fish/bird predation (not in PSC) was possible overall and possible to very unlikelyfor the low returns in 2009.o En route mortality was considered to be important for spawner abundance butcannot be evaluated against the productivity measure of recruits per spawner.Although many of the hypotheses were thought to possibly contribute to the decline, none of theavailable evidence points toward a single hypothesis as the only contributing factor in the declineof sockeye salmon from the Fraser River.Research and Monitoring RecommendationsParticipants were asked to examine the PSC Report Priorities for Monitoring and Research (andTable E-3)(Peterman et al. 2010) as a starting point for a plenary discussion. Given that twelveprojects presented their research and contain recommendations within each of their respectivereports, the purpose of this exercise was to broadly address priorities for monitoring and researchbeyond project boundaries.The participants agreed with the PSC outcome that a co-ordinated, multi-disciplinary programshould be implemented. There was consensus among the group that a focused oceanographic andfisheries research program targeting the Georgia Strait, Queen Charlotte Sound and extendingalong the continental shelf to the Alaska border would considerably advance our knowledge ofcurrent and future Fraser River sockeye populations. The program should focus on three coreareas: 1) data collection, 2) database assimilation and integrated analysis, and 3) dissemination ofinformation.