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

through an interest-driven business planning process. This process includes the potentialfor providing First Nations with access to additional commercial licences for a widevariety of species.Catch Estimation MethodsThe catch monitoring system for lower Fraser Pilot Sales or Economic Opportunityfisheries has included “mandatory landing sites” since 1993. Under this requirement, allfish landed for sale must be enumerated at one of the designated landing sites. Prior tothe separation of FSC and commercial fishing days in 2004, there was greater potentialfor missing a portion of the First Nation commercial catch because there were norequirements for enumeration of FSC fish at landing sites. The separation of the FSC andsale fisheries has made it easier to monitor catch and enforce landing requirements forsale fisheries. Consequently, our ratings for the accuracy, precision and reliability of thecatch estimates for First Nation commercial sockeye fisheries are substantially higher forrecent years (2004-2009) than earlier years (Table 10).Table 10 Summary of available information on accuracy, precision and reliabilityof the catch monitoring programs used to estimate the harvest of Frasersockeye in First Nation Pilot Sales and Economic Opportunity fisheriesduring three periods.% of Quality of Catch EstimatesLocation FN Catch Accuracy Precision ReliabilityPre-AFS (1980-91) ? Unknown Unknown LowEarly AFS (1992-03) 35% Variable 1 Unknown Variable 1Recent AFS (2004-09) 20% Good High Good1 separation of FSC and commercial harvest not available for several yearsFirst Nation Harvests and Allocations for Fraser SockeyeComparisons of annual catch estimates with First Nation allocations were only possiblefor Fraser River fisheries below Sawmill Creek using the information provided by DFO(Ionson 2009). These comparisons were further limited to years when there werenegotiated agreements with lower Fraser First Nations and thus defined allocations forthese Fraser sockeye fisheries. Table 11 provides the available information on sockeyeallocations and harvests for Musqueam and Tsawwassen First Nations, and Table 12provides similar information of the First Nations included in the Sto:lo Group from the36