Fraser River sockeye salmon: data synthesis and cumulative impacts

Q/A: Researchers should also feel free to make recommendations on research priorities in theirreports.DiscussionParticipants were asked to share their most important change to the identified priorities, andreported as follows:Peterman: A major effort to construct and maintain databases with appropriate QA/ QCprocedures, so that we can answer questions quickly and with some credibility. In addition tosalmon data, such databases should include data related to mechanisms and ecosystems.Routledge: Include condition and length in the recommended juvenile assessments.Christensen: The table has a very low emphasis on ocean research: we’re “looking under thestreetlight.” Relevance to management actions is important and we should do fisheryexperiments all the time if it’s important. Also research on the abundance of predators.Trites: Predator diet studies (fish and mammals) using DNA to see which salmon species theyare eating.Dorner: Studies of outside migration routes are just as important as inside studies.Staley: I agree with the database suggestion. Also ensuring that we maintain capacity to managethe fishery. We should not lose sight of this in looking for interesting information about thefish.Blewett: I also agree with Peterman. Take these recommendations and combine them with asimilar description of the monitoring that’s being done now, put them together and put costdata against each one so that you can make good decisions about how to optimizeinvestments in research programs.Rosenau: Georgia Strait is the term used here. It should be clarified that we need to look atmigration and survival routes from Campbell River north to the tip of Vancouver Island andsouth via the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We need discrete macro units assessed for juvenilemigration patterns and survival rates.Martin: Focus on productivity and changes in rearing lakes: limnology, smolt and fall fry studies.Ashley: A user-friendly annual report on the state of the salmon. Start with sockeye butultimately cover all species.Johannes: Redefine the rows in this table and link Rows 2, 3 and 4 as a single program.Successfully-funded programs are life-history specific. POST is one mechanism for studyingit but we no longer have sampling programs that look at the distribution of smolts. We haveno index for smolts. We don’t need fences, do net catches. There is also nothing on thetiming of the freshet.English: Too much energy is going into improving forecasting instead of into doing proper inseasonmonitoring. We need inside Georgia Strait studies. A first priority should be an initialscoping of data – it’s unlikely to be done in the next two weeks – on things like harmfulalgae and contaminants. Some things could be done via existing data and it could guide afuture program. Also what’s happening with fish going through Georgia Strait. If the actionis outside Georgia Strait we will need major dollars to study it.69