Proceedings 2009/019
Proceedings of the Central and Arctic Regional Science Advisory Process on the Recovery Potential Assessment of Atlantic Salmon (Lake Ontario Population);
March 1-2, 2007
Chairperson: L. Marshall
Summary
A regional science peer review meeting was held on March 1-2, 2007 in Burlington Ontario. The purpose of the review was to provide science advice on the Recovery Potential of the Lake Ontario population of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.) including a science-based peer review of the designatable unit assigned by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and the 16 stepsFootnote 1 in Fisheries and Ocean’s Recovery Potential Assessment (RPA) framework. The advice was intended to feed the recovery process, under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA), for Atlantic Salmon (Lake Ontario population) which had been designated as Extirpated by COSEWIC. The advice will be provided to the DFO Minister for his consideration in any listing decision under the SARA for this population and for any socio-economic analyses, consultations and recovery planning related to this population. Participants included representatives of DFO Science and Policy sectors from the NCR, Central and Arctic, and Maritimes regions; and, salmon specialists from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. This proceedings report summarizes the relevant discussions and presents the key conclusions reached at the peer review meeting.
Key results of the meeting included that the Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon population is not currently self-sustaining and agreement that the population should be considered Extirpated. The Recovery Target for the Lake Ontario population should be based on the number of spawners returning each year with a target of 20% of historic levels. The entire wetted areas of the Credit River, Duffins Creek and Cobourg Creek were considered Critical Habitat and participants agreed that Atlantic Salmon redds are Residences. The bottleneck to recovery is in the pre-adult (YOY, age 1+ and smolt) stages and if this bottleneck is dealt with, an Allowable Harm of 2% would not be considered an impediment to recovery for Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon.
This report will be published in the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) Proceedings Series. One of the working papers presented at the workshop (Vélez-Espino and Koops 2007) was published in the CSAS Research Document report series. A second Research Document with information on critical habitat and residences will also be published in the CSAS series. The advice from the meeting will be published as a Science Advisory Report.
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