Fraser River Sockeye Fisheries and Fisheries Management - Cohen ...

Escapements versus Minimum Escapement GoalsIn this section, we compare the 4-year running average of observed escapements from1960-2009 with the Low Escapement Benchmarks (LEBs) or “Interim LRPs” as definedin Table 24 for each run-timing group (Figures 16-19). The “Fixed Escapement Targets,or “Interim TRPs”, are also provided in these figures but not used to evaluatemanagement performance because the annual escapement targets vary with run size andcan be substantially different from the “Fixed Escapement Targets” derived from theTAM rule, as discussed above.Escapement700,000600,000500,000400,000300,000200,000100,000Early StuartEscapement4yr avgInterim TRPInterim LRP01960196419681972197619801984198819921996200020042008Figure 16 Escapement and operational reference points for Early Stuart sockeye.The 4-year average escapement for Early Stuart sockeye has been above the LowEscapement Benchmark (LEB) for most of the years since 1970 but only five of the last10 years (Figure 16). The two operational reference points were developed through theFRSSI process and implemented since 2006. The lower reference point (red line=50,300) is the interim 4-year average escapement benchmark intended to delineate lowescapement for this stock, and should be compared to the 4-year running average ofescapement (black line in Figure 16). The 4-year average dropped below the LEB linefrom 2005-2009 because of the very low returns from 2002-2009. No commercial106