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

accurate, precise, and timely, (2) essentially no exploitation occurs up-river of theenumeration projects, (3) the nine systems are managed more or less individually withfew interception/mixed stock fishery issues, (4) high exploitation rates (80-90%) can beturned on and off from tide to tide, and (5) managers are given immediate and directauthority.IntroductionThe purpose of this section is to provide an overview of sockeye fishery management inBristol Bay, Alaska, and to characterize the pre-season and in-season forecasting methodsused by fishery managers. We do not provide an exhaustive inventory of the nuances orhistory about Bristol Bay sockeye; rather, the chapter is a synopsis of the fisheriesscience tools used by the managers and of how the fishery is structured that will facilitatea comparison with the Fraser River sockeye fishery. From the description below, it willbecome clear that the two fisheries are quite different in many respects and that preseasonand in-season forecasts of abundance have disproportionate influences onmanagement in each fishery. In Bristol Bay, pre-season forecasts of the total run andcatch are largely done as a service to processors and harvesters for logistics planning. Inseasonforecasts are done in an ad hoc manner to assist managers who are focused onreaching escapement goals from day to day and tide to tide using daily and hourlyescapement estimates, test fishing results, and levels of fishery performance. Individualriver stocks or in some districts stock groups are managed separately to allow a targetnumber of spawners past the commercial fishery. Four area management biologistsmanage escapements to nine river systems and are very adept at hitting escapement goaltargets for several reasons: (1) catch and escapement estimates are very accurate, precise,and timely, (2) essentially no exploitation occurs up-river of the enumeration projects, (3)the nine systems are managed more or less individually with few interception/mixedstock fishery issues, (4) high exploitation rates (80-90%) can be turned on and off fromtide to tide, and (5) managers are given immediate and direct authority.The Bristol Bay FisherySince the Bristol Bay commercial fishery began in the 1880s, over 1.8 billion sockeyesalmon have been harvested, and the fishery is in the midst of its most productive era.Annual harvests over the last 20 years have averaged 26 million fish and have rangedfrom 10 million to 45 million. Daily harvests at the peak of the annual fishery exceed 2million fish on a regular basis and have been as high as 5.2 million fish on a single day127