Seafood Watch

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Seafood Watch® Wild Pacific Salmon Report October 8, 2010 Special Behaviors or Requirements: Existence of special behaviors that increase ease or population consequences of capture (e.g., migratory bottlenecks, spawning aggregations, site fidelity, unusual attraction to gear, sequential hermaphrodites, segregation by sex, etc., OR specific and limited habitat requirements within the species’ range) ‣ No known behaviors or requirements OR behaviors that decrease vulnerability (e.g., widely dispersed during spawning) ‣ Some (i.e., 1 - 2) behaviors or requirements ‣ Many (i.e., > 2) behaviors or requirements Quality of Habitat: Degradation from non-fishery impacts Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Chum, and Pink Salmon in AK ‣ Habitat is robust ‣ Habitat has been moderately altered by non-fishery impacts Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Chum, and Pink Salmon in OR (north of Cape Falcon) and WA ‣ Habitat has been substantially compromised from non-fishery impacts (e.g., dams, pollution, or coastal development) and thus has reduced capacity to support this species Evaluation Guidelines 1) Primary Factors a) If ‘r’ is known, use it as the basis for the rank of the Primary Factors. b) If ‘r’ is unknown, then the most conservative rank from the remaining Primary Factors is the basis for the rank (in order of importance, as listed). 2) Secondary Factors a) If the majority (2 out of 3) of the Secondary Factors rank as Red, reclassify the species into the next lower rank (e.g., Green becomes Yellow, Yellow becomes Red). No other combination of Secondary Factors can modify the rank from the Primary Factors. b) If the rank of the Primary Factors is Red AND the majority of Secondary Factors are also Red, inherent vulnerability represents a Critical Conservation Concern and the species receives a rank of “Critical” for this criterion and an overall seafood recommendation of “Avoid” regardless of the other criteria. Pacific Salmon in AK ‣ Low (Inherently Resilient) Conservation Concern: Inherent Vulnerability Pacific Salmon in OR (north of Cape Falcon) and WA ‣ Moderate (Inherently Neutral) 37
Seafood Watch® Wild Pacific Salmon Report October 8, 2010 Criterion 2: Status of Wild Stocks Guiding Principle: Sustainable wild-caught seafood species have stock structure and abundance sufficient to maintain long-term fishery productivity. This criterion examines the stock structure and abundance of targeted salmon fisheries on the coasts of Alaska, Washington and Oregon (north of Cape Falcon). Healthy stocks are those believed capable of supporting long-term fishery production. The primary factors evaluated in this criterion are long- and short-term trends in escapement. 13 Where escapement data are not present, long-term trends in fishery landings can provide a proxy for abundance, though landings are influenced by variable fishing effort and regulations. This criterion (and the following criterion on Bycatch) relies heavily on management “escapement goals.” It needs to be recognized that these escapement goals, and associated maximum sustainable yields (MSYs), are not necessarily accurate. Standard fisheries curvefitting techniques are notoriously poor for salmonids and management efforts that rely on curvefitting contain substantial uncertainty. In other words, managers do not always know what an appropriate MSY or escapement goal is with a great degree of certainty. It is also important to note that declines in salmon abundance in many areas predate the fifty years of landings data in the NMFS database; the absence of historical data creates the danger of a shifting baseline. Conversely, there is a difficulty in separating current fishing impacts from historical overfishing. Because the data uncertainties are so large, the report may appear to be conflating past and present fishing pressure. Because of dramatic differences between the health of many salmon stocks, assessments of salmon fisheries are necessarily divided by species and along geographic lines. The process of aggregating stock data into larger geographic units may result in recommendations that are overinclusive; however, the usefulness of the analysis for Seafood Watch® and ultimately for consumers requires aggregation and generalization. The regional distribution of salmon landings is presented here, followed by state-specific assessments of salmon stocks (Table 2.1). Because of the relatively unique role of artificial production in supporting salmon fisheries, this analysis is necessarily prefaced with a clarification of the role of hatchery salmon in assessing stock structure and abundance. Hatchery Salmon Unlike every other major marine fishery in the United States, West Coast salmon are heavily augmented by hatchery production. Salmon hatcheries exist for a variety of purposes, most notably the conservation, restoration, and/or augmentation of salmon runs. In the United States, several hundred public and private hatcheries collectively release nearly two billion salmon annually (NPAFC 2004). The presence of these fish can significantly complicate commercial fishery assessments, as neither the positive nor the negative effects of hatcheries are generally considered in the fishing mortality calculus used in most fisheries analyses. 13 Ocean escapement is defined as the number of fish surviving ocean fisheries and returning to the freshwater environment to spawn. 38
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