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

of Sustainable Salmon Fisheries” (SSFP) (See 5 AAC 39.222: Policy for the managementof sustainable salmon fisheries) that specifies guiding principles and protocols for themanagement of salmon fisheries to achieve maximum or optimum salmon production.Among other things, the SSFP sets out how and when a stock is deemed weak(conservation concern) and how the burden of conservation should be shared amongusers.In Bristol Bay, research biologists have river-specific stock-recruit datasets spanning ~50years of annual escapements and subsequent age-specific recruits (Baker et al. 2009).Once developed by ADF&G, escapement goals are presented to the BOF. At that stage,the BOF may accept the escapement goals (most commonly) or modify them toaccommodate social, conservation, and allocation concerns by users and ADF&G.Conservation concerns in Bristol Bay can result in the BOF varying river-specificescapement goals (EGs) higher or lower from biological reference points (e.g., MSY) toprotect weak stocks in mixed-stock fishing districts; in these cases optimum escapementgoals (OEGs) are implemented by the BOF. An OEG for the more productive stock in amixed-stock fishery is sometimes raised above the MSY escapement goal to permitmanagers to focus on meeting the weaker stock’s EG and avoid criticism from exceedingthe EG of the more productive stock (e.g., Naknek River OEG to help the manager meetKvichak River EG). Less common is when an OEG is set lower than the MSY goal toreduce foregone harvest of the more productive stock because meeting the weaker stocksEG is seen as too hard an economic hardship on local communities (e.g., Nushagak RiverOEG to realize greater yield from the Wood River; Evans et al. 2000). In all cases,escapement goals established by the BOF must meet a “sustained yield” criterion basedon historical catch and escapement data.140