Terms of Reference

Assessment of Southern British Columbia Chinook Salmon Conservation Units, Benchmarks and Status

Regional Peer Review Meeting - Pacific Region

February 4-6, 2014
Nanaimo, British Columbia

Chairperson: Bruce Patten

Context

Populations of southern British Columbia (BC) Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), defined as those entering the ocean south of Cape Caution, have experienced repeated years of low returns and there is a high degree of uncertainty about their longer term abundance and productivity.  DFO is currently undertaking a number of initiatives in order to assess the current status of these stocks and to guide the implementation of appropriate actions for their conservation.  These actions are within the context of both the Wild Salmon Policy (WSP) and in light of a pending Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessment of status.

As part of implementing Strategy 1 of the WSP, Canada is required to assess the biological status of WSP Conservation Units (CUs) for Pacific salmon.  To meet this requirement for southern British Columbia Chinook Salmon, this Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) workshop will apply the status integration techniques developed for Fraser River Sockeye Salmon (Grant and Pestal 2013) to determine a WSP status for each of the 35 southern BC Chinook Salmon CUs.  This process will use the benchmarks and other information reviewed during two pre-COSEWIC Regional Peer Review meetings (March 6-8, 2013 and November 5-6, 2013).

Objectives

The objectives of this workshop are to:

1. Determine an integrated WSP status for each southern BC Chinook Salmon CU;
2. Indicate the effect on the status assessments of including, or excluding, enhanced Chinook Salmon contributions;
3. Provide advice on data and methods required for assessing the status of any CUs that are currently data deficient;
4. Include information specific to each CU on fishing mortality, where possible;
5. Provide advice on the appropriate frequency of status re-assessment, changes to monitoring variables that could invoke early re-assessment, and the appropriate timing for assessment relative to data availability; and
6. Identify and recommend data management approaches required to support recommended changes to re-assessment of CUs.

The workshop will deal exclusively with assessments of biological status under WSP Strategy 1, and will be based on CSAS-accepted metrics and benchmarks.  An integrated WSP status will be determined for each of the 35 CUs by break-out groups, each assigned CUs defined by one or more features or issues (e.g., low data quality, short time series or the presence of an enhanced component within a CU).  Each group will report how they arrived at a status assessment for their CUs.  The final integrated status will be assigned in a plenary session and CU-specific characteristics of data or metrics used by participants in their decision making will be captured for inclusion in a research document to be prepared following the workshop.

Questions for participants to consider in support of achieving the objectives include:

1. How should status assessments be combined across different metrics?
2. How should uncertainty in benchmarks be considered?
3. How should data quality be considered in the status evaluation?
4. How should additional information be considered in status integration?

Participants will be invited to respond to these four questions through small group or individual interviews prior to the workshop.  During the interviews, participants will be introduced to the information to be used in the integrated status review process.

Expected publications

• Science Advisory Report
• Proceedings Document
• Research Document

Participation

• DFO (Science Branch, Fisheries Management Branch)
• Province of British Columbia
• Southern BC Chinook Technical Working Group
• Commercial and recreational fishing interests
• First Nations
• Non-government organizations
• Academia

References Cited

DFO. 2013. Review and update of southern BC Chinook conservation unit assignments. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Resp. 2013/022. 25 pp.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 2005. Canada's Policy for Conservation of Wild Pacific Salmon. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Vancouver, BC. 34 pp.

Grant, S.C.H., MacDonald, B.L., Cone, T.E., Holt, C.A., Cass, A., Porszt, E.J., Hume, J.M.B., and Pon, L.B. 2011. Evaluation of uncertainty in Fraser Sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) Wild Salmon Policy status using abundance and trends in abundance metrics. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2011/087. viii + 183 pp.

Grant, S.C.H. and Pestal, G. 2013. Integrated biological status assessments under the Wild Salmon Policy using standardized metrics and expert judgement: Fraser River sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) case studies. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2012/106. v + 132 pp.

Holt, C.A. 2009. Evaluation of benchmarks for Conservation Units in Canada's Wild Salmon Policy: technical documentation. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2009/059. xii + 50 pp.

Holt, C.A., Cass, A., Holtby, B., and Riddell, B. 2009. Indicators of status and benchmarks for Conservation Units in Canada's Wild Salmon Policy. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2009/058. vii + 74 pp.