Science Advisory Report  2015/058

Development of reference points for Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) that conform to the Precautionary Approach

Summary

• The Limit Reference Point (LRP) should be defined on the basis of conservation of the salmon population, and unrelated to fishery exploitation objectives.
• The proposed LRP value is the egg deposition that results in less than a 25% chance that the realized smolt production from freshwater would be less than 50% of the estimated maximum recruitment.
• For small populations, conservation genetics should be considered in complement to stock and recruitment information to establish a LRP.
• At a minimum, the Upper Stock Reference point (USR) must be greater than the LRP and there should be a very low probability (<5%) of recruitment falling below the LRP when the stock is at USR and is exploited at the maximum removal rate. The choice of the USR will depend upon the objectives of the users and the risk profile and risk tolerance of the management strategy.
• If reference points are defined in terms of rates, such as eggs or spawners per wetted fluvial area, these reference points can be transferred if the habitat areas and biological characteristics of the stocks are known.
• Stock and recruitment modelling is the favoured approach for examining population dynamics and developing reference points for Atlantic Salmon.
• The use of a Hierarchical Bayesian Model framework is an excellent approach for addressing exchangeability and transfer of reference points to unmonitored and data-poor populations.

This Science Advisory Report is from the February 11-13, 2014 zonal peer review meeting on the Development of Reference Points for Atlantic Salmon that Conform to the Precautionary Approach. Additional publications from this meeting will be posted on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Science Advisory Schedule as they become available.

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