Proceedings 2016/029

Proceedings of the Pacific regional peer review on the Assessment of Southern British Columbia Chinook Salmon Conservation Units, Benchmarks and Status; February 4-6, 2014

Chairperson: Bruce A. Patten
Editors: Gayle S. Brown, Gottfried Pestal, Mary E. Thiess

Summary

These Proceedings summarize the discussions and key conclusions that resulted from a Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) Regional Peer Review workshop conducted on February 4-6, 2014, at the Coast Bastion Hotel in Nanaimo, BC. The workshop involved the application of the status integration techniques developed for Fraser River Sockeye Salmon (Grant & Pestal 2013) to determine a Wild Salmon Policy (WSP)  status for each of the 35 southern BC Chinook Salmon Conservation Units (CU). The workshop participants used the benchmarks and other information reviewed during two pre-COSEWIC Regional Peer Review meetings (March 6-8, 2013 and November 5-6, 2013).

Participants were invited based on their experience with different aspects of salmon assessment and included DFO staff from Science, Ecosystem Management and Fisheries Management sectors and external participants from First Nations organizations, the commercial and recreational fishing sectors, environmental non-governmental organizations, and academia. Participants were requested to join a pre-workshop online seminar in order to review the data summary layout and to provide feedback to organizers on the workshop format.

At the workshop, through a combination of small-group discussions and plenary debate, participants developed integrated status (which included one to two WSP status zones) for 15 out of the 35 southern BC Chinook CUs, status commentaries for each CU, and documented their decision process. Of the remaining CUs, 9 had insufficient information for status determination and 11 could not be assessed due to an unresolved issue regarding the method for incorporation of information from the enhanced fish contribution.

These Proceedings outline the structure of the workshop and summarize general discussions related to the process. These proceedings also include the results of breakout group evaluations, the final status table developed through plenary discussion and key recommendations for future work. A complete set of the materials presented at the workshop (e.g. status information by CU) and worked-up results from the workshop (e.g. consolidated status commentary for each CU) have been compiled and summarized in the Research Document associated with this workshop. Recommendations resulting from the meeting are documented in the Science Advisory Report resulting from the workshop.

Complete document (PDF, 926 KB)

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