Technical Reports

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/3783

School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences Technical Reports 1973 through the present. As of 2000 the FRI-UW series was renamed AFS-UW.

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NPAFC Research Coordination, 2002
(University of Washington High Seas Salmon Research Program, 2002-10) Myers, Katherine W; Walker, Robert V; Davis, Nancy D
This report summarizes the results of research on high seas salmonids conducted in FY 2002 (1 October 2001·30 September 2002) by the High Seas Salmon Research Program, Fisheries Research Institute (FRI), School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS; formerly the School of Fisheries), University of Washington, under contract to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Contract #50ABNF-l()( X)()2, Title: NPAFC Research Coordination). This work is a continuation of research required to meet United States' commitments to the research program of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC), and is authorized by the NOAA Authorization Act of 1992 (PL 102-567. Title VID: North Pacific Anadromous Stocks Convention). The NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Auke Bay Laboratory (ABL) in Juneau, Alaska, is charged with the mission of stewardship for this program, and is its primary using office. The FY 2002 work was in two major areas: (1) international cooperative high seas salmon research, including maintenance of historical scale collections, high seas tagging, and salmon research vessel cruises; and (2) NPAFC participation.
NPAFC Research Coordination, 2001
(University of Washington High Seas Salmon Research Program, 2001-09) Myers, KW; Walker, RV; Davis, ND
This report summarizes the results of research on high seas salmonids conducted in FY 2001 (1 October 2000-30 September 2001) by the High Seas Salmon Research Program, Fisheries Research Institute (FRI), School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS; formerly the School of Fisheries), University of Washington, under contract to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Contract #50ABNF-1- 00002, Title: NPAFC Research Coordination). This work is a continuation of research required to meet United States' commitments to the research program of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC), and is authorized by the NOAA Authorization Act of 1992 (PL 102-567, Title VIII: North Pacific Anadromous Stocks Convention). The NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Auke Bay Laboratory (ABL) in Juneau, Alaska, is charged with the mission of stewardship for this program, and is its primary using office. The FY 2000 work was in two major areas: (1) international cooperative high seas salmon research, including maintenance of historical scale collections, high seas tagging, and salmon research vessel cruises; and (2) NPAFC participation.
Reconstruction of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon returns using age and genetic composition of catch
(2012-12) Cunningham, Curry J; Hilborn, Ray W.; Seeb, James; Smith, Matt; Branch, Trevor
The purpose of this report was to reconstruct historical sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) runs to Bristol Bay, Alaska for use by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) in evaluating biological escapement goals for component populations. Annual inshore run sizes (1963-2011) were reconstructed for each of the 18 observed age classes by partitioning annual catches from the mixed-stock terminal fishing districts and accounting for observed interception of stocks in non-destination fishing districts. Age and genetic composition of catch data were used to partition catches and estimate escapement age composition for years in which those data were unavailable. Results of this reconstruction process indicate that in western Bristol Bay the traditional run reconstruction methods routinely overestimated the productivity (recruits/spawner) of Igushik River (mean: 32%) and Nushagak River (mean: 15%) stocks while underestimating the productivity of the Wood River stock. In eastern Bristol Bay, differences in annual productivity estimated by the run reconstruction procedure incorporating both age and genetic-composition of catch data and that estimated by traditional methods were more varied across the time series, with productivity of the Egegik River stock routinely overestimated (mean: 9%) and productivity of the Alagnak River stock routinely underestimated (mean: 15%) by the traditional method.
Estimates of the Bycatch of Yukon River Chinook Salmon in U.S. Groundfish Fisheries in the Eastern Bering Sea, 1997-1999
(University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, 2003) Myers, Katherine W.; Walker, Robert V.; Armstrong, Janet L.; Davis, Nancy D.
Record low runs of chinook salmon to the Yukon River in the late 1990s intensified concerns about salmon bycatch by U.S. groundfish fisheries in the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI). We estimated the bycatch of Yukon River chinook salmon by the BSAI groundfish fisheries in 1997-1999, and evaluated the effect of the BSAI bycatch on Yukon River fisheries and resources. Estimated interceptions of Yukon River chinook salmon by the BSAI fisheries were 7,266 fish in 1997, 8,908 fish in 1998, and 3,074 fish in 1999. Adult equivalent (AEQ) bycatch estimates were 6,522 fish in 1997, 7,510 fish in 1998, and 2,721 fish in 1999. The AEQ bycatch was equal to 1-4% of the minimum run, 12-51% of the minimum (lower river) escapement, 10-38% of upper river (Canadian) escapement, 3-35% of the Alaska commercial catch, 6-9% of the Alaska subsistence catch, or 22-84% of the Canadian catch of chinook salmon in the Yukon River in 1997-2000. We conclude that in years when chinook salmon runs are low, even relatively low incidental catches of salmon by non-target marine fisheries may reduce local utilization of chinook salmon
Initial Biological Responses at a Restored Floodplain Habitat, Hansen Creek, Washington
(2012) Cordell, Jeffrey R.; Stamatiou, Lia; Toft, Jason D.; Armbrust, Elizabeth A.
Streams with intact floodplain connections are important to juvenile salmonids during their freshwater residence, providing refuge during periods of high flow as well as prey produced in emergent marsh and terrestrial riparian habitats. Habitat restoration was undertaken in 2009-2010 on lower Hansen Creek, Washington, with the goal of recovering these important lower elevation freshwater floodplain functions. The project converted 140 acres of isolated floodplain into 53 acres of alluvial fan and 87 acres of flow-through wetlands. To quantify the initial biological responses at the Hansen Creek alluvial fan restoration site and provide a baseline of data for future comparisons, we conducted invertebrate and fish sampling at the restored habitats. The study was conducted from September 2010 through September 2011 in three areas within the restoration site, and in one reference area outside the project area. We collected diets from juveniles of Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and Steelhead trout (O. mykiss), the two dominant salmonids in the creek. Salmonid abundances and diets were also sampled during periodic seasonal flooding that occurred on the restored floodplain. Insects were sampled with fallout traps once-monthly March through September, and neuston invertebrates were sampled once on the floodplain during an inundation event in April and once at the in-channel sites in June. Visual snorkel fish surveys were attempted January through May, and successfully completed June through August. Sampling to assess the Biological Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) was completed in September 2010 and September 2011. Diets of both Steelhead trout and Coho salmon consisted of aquatic drift, terrestrial insects, and benthic prey items. In general, higher instantaneous rations, a measure of feeding intensity, were recorded from diets of juvenile Coho salmon collected during periodic inundation events than during regular monthly sampling in the channels. Despite relatively warm water temperatures and decreased visibility due to high turbidity, the floodplain appeared to provide favorable feeding opportunities to salmonids, likely due to greater availability of drift and emergent insect prey. Terrestrial insect numbers peaked in July and August. The floodplain site had consistently higher insect abundances, and always had significantly different fallout trap assemblages compared to the other sites. Neuston organisms collected in the main channel habitats were dominated by chironomid larvae while those collected during inundation consisted of other types of insects and planktonic organisms. The three reaches sampled for B-IBI all scored in the fair range in both 2010 and 2011, except for one reach, which scored in the good range in 2010. One of the goals of this study was to evaluate methods for future sampling at the Hansen Creek restoration site. Insect fallout trap and B-IBI sampling are common techniques that will provide data that is comparable to other sites, and our results from the neuston nets indicate that they can provide information that the other methods do not. The methods we used for catching salmonids were arrived at after trying several techniques early in the study. High flows and turbidity during much of the year precluded visual collection methods, and a combination of dip nets with block-and-sweep net samplings was conducted. These methods were probably not completely effective at capturing larger more evasive salmonids or at quantifying salmonids in complex habitats. In the future, a better method would be multiple-pass depletion electrofishing paired with visual snorkel surveys when visibility allows, such as the Basin-wide Visual Estimation Technique. Pole seining in the inundated areas was effective for obtaining juvenile salmonids for diets, but we were not able to generate densities using this method. Also, fishing with pole seines in the floodplain area will likely become more difficult as the vegetation community matures. In this case, additional fishing methods such as fyke nets or traps could be used.
Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring at Seahurst Park 2010: Year 5 Post-Restoration of South Seawall Removal and Baseline for North Seawall Removal
(2011-06) Toft, Jason D.
This report describes monitoring of benthic invertebrates at Seahurst Park, located on Puget Sound in the City of Burien. A seawall on the south side of the park was removed in February 2005 and the intertidal beach restored. There is also a planned seawall removal scheduled to happen in 2011/12 on the north side of the park with similar restoration of the intertidal beach. Sampling at the south restored site and an adjacent reference beach has occurred pre-restoration in 2004, post-restoration in 2006, 2008, and now five years after restoration in 2010. Sampling at the north section in 2010 will serve as a baseline for future restoration and as a comparison to the south sites.
Alaska Salmon Research 2010
(2011-06) Schindler, Daniel E.; Quinn, Thomas P.; Hilborn, Ray W.; Hauser, Lorenz
Preseason and inseason forecasting continue to be central features of our fisheries management activities. Preseason forecasts are very important to processors and fishermen for planning their capacity for the coming season, and the conservation concerns about Kvichak have meant that the preseason forecast has special importance with regard to whether the fisheries in Naknek and Egegik operate in restricted boundaries at the beginning of the season. We have a number of projects associated with escapement goals, run reconstruction, and we are working closely with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADFG) on methods for evaluating alternative harvest strategies and increasing the effectiveness of inseason run forecasting. While the traditional analysis of escapement goals has been concerned only with maximum harvest, the need to increase profitability in the processing and harvesting industries has caused us to explore the economic implications as well as the biological implications of harvest strategies.
Olympic Sculpture Park: Year 3 monitoring of shoreline enhancements
(2010-09) Toft, Jason D.; Ogston, Andrea; Heerhartz, Sarah D.; Cordell, Jeffery R.; Armbrust, Elizabeth A.; Levy, Claire
In January 2007 the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park (OSP) opened at a site along Seattle’s urbanized Elliott Bay shoreline. The park includes enhanced shoreline features designed to benefit juvenile salmon and other organisms. A pocket beach and habitat bench were created in shallow nearshore waters, vegetation was planted in the uplands, and coarse‐grained sediments and driftwood were placed on the beach. These features replaced the relatively unproductive armored seawall and riprap shoreline, with a goal of increasing the number and diversity of fish and invertebrates. Although this shoreline is in an urban, commercial setting and will not be completely restored to pre‐historic conditions, the park has enhanced a publically accessible segment of shoreline that has more natural functions than it did before.
2010 Arctic Yukon Kuskokwim (AYK) Sustainable Salmon Initiative Project Final Product: Climate-Ocean Effects on AYK Chinook Salmon
(2010-11) Myers, Katherine W.; Walker, Robert V.; Davis, Nancy D.; Armstrong, Janet L.; Fournier, Wyatt J.; Mantua, Nathan J.; Raymond-Yakoubian, Julie
A high-priority research issue identified by the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) Sustainable Salmon Initiative (SSI) is to determine whether the ocean environment is a more important cause of variation in the abundance of AYK Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) populations than marine fishing mortality. At the outset of this project, however, data on ocean life history of AYK salmon were too limited to test hypotheses about the effects of environmental conditions versus fishing on marine survival. Our goal was to identify and evaluate life history patterns of use of marine resources (habitat and food) by Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) and to explore how these patterns are affected by climate-ocean conditions, including documentation of local traditional knowledge (LTK) of this high-priority issue. Synthesis of LTK from the Bering Straits region identified important changes in adult AYK Chinook salmon biological characteristics, climate, and fishing. Local experts observed later run timing, a decrease in body size and stomach contents, and an increase in diseases, parasites, and deformities in adult salmon; environmental changes, including strength and direction of wind, timing of freeze- and break-up, warming of ocean and river temperatures, accompanied by increases in algae, water grasses, jellyfish, and erosion events; an increase in marine subsistence harvests of salmon; and salmon bycatch in Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) trawl fisheries for walleye pollock. Multiple lines of scientific evidence indicated that Chinook salmon respond to variation in climate-ocean conditions and fishing by changes in distribution, diet, size and age at maturation, growth, and survival. Evidence from tagging and other stock identification methods suggested that AYK Chinook spend most of their ocean life in the Bering Sea. Distribution of immature AYK Chinook is farthest offshore in their second summer-fall at sea, extending into the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone in the northwestern Bering Sea. Unlike other species of AYK salmon, AYK Chinook overwinter in the BSAI fishery area. Limited data from electronic tags showed Chinook have a deeper vertical distribution than any other salmon species, with the known vertical range extending from the surface to a depth of 523 m (1,717 ft). These life-history traits make AYK Chinook more susceptible than other AYK salmon species to bycatch in winter BSAI trawl fisheries. Reconstructions of growth histories indicated growth of Yukon River Chinook salmon shifted to a positive phase in 1999-2000 that continued through 2009, but did not result in increased adult returns to the river. We completed the first study of winter diets of Chinook in the BSAI bycatch. The primary prey was squid, although many fish had empty stomachs. All age groups of Chinook in winter consumed fish offal, which is of low nutritional quality (identified by DNA analysis as walleye pollock, likely from fishery catch-processing activities). Bioenergetics models indicated that warm temperatures over Alaska and at sea and high quality diets are associated with increased growth of AYK Chinook. Climate-ocean variables most linked to increased AYK Chinook salmon growth – lower sea ice cover and warmer temperatures – are projected by climate models to change in the Bering Sea this century, with temperatures increasing at higher latitudes by 2°C (3.6°F) and ice cover diminishing and retreating earlier. We concluded that the low abundance of some populations of AYK Chinook makes them vulnerable to adverse changes in climate-ocean conditions and fisheries. Relationships among climate, fishery, and other factors affecting growth and survival of AYK Chinook in both marine and freshwater habitats are complex and point to critical needs for additional research, management, and restoration actions to ensure sustainability of this valuable natural resource.
Abundance of Adult Hatchery and Wild Salmon by Region of the North Pacific
(2010-07) Ruggerone, Gregory T.; Peterman, Randall M.; Dorner, Brigitte; Myers, Katerine W.; Mantua, Nathan J.
Benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring at Seahurst Park 2008, year 3 post-restoration of seawall removal.
(2009) Toft, Jason D.
Sculpture Park: Year 2 fish, epibenthos, and physical monitoring, including additional beaches.
(2009) Toft, Jason D.; Heerhartz, Sarah D.; Cordell, Jeffrey R.; Ogston, Andrea S.; Flemer, Emelie
Studies on the effect of winter climate on survival of sockeye salmon embyros in the Wood River Lakes, Alaska, 1952-1959.
(1960 (Revised 2009)) Church, Wilbur A.; Burgner, Jr., Robert L.
Olympic Sculpture Park: Results from Year 1 Post-construction Monitoring of Shoreline Habitats
(2008) Toft, Jason D.; Cordell, Jeffery R.; Heerhartz, Sarah D.; Armbrust, Elizabeth A.; Ogston, Andrea S.; Flemer, Emelie
Banks Lake Kokanee Barrier Development and Evaluation
(1977-09-17) Gaudet, David M.; Stober, Quentin J.; Tyler, Richard W.; Petrosky, C. E.; Quinnell, S.
Fish assemblages and juvenile salmon diets at a breached-dike wetland site, Spencer Island, Washington, 1997-98
(1999) Cordell, Jeffery R.; Tanner, Curtis D.; Aitkin, J. Kevin
Duwamish River Coastal America restoration and reference sites: Results from 1997 monitoring studies
(1999) Jensen, K.; Higgins, Heather A.; Cordell, Jeffery R.; Tear, L. M.
Pacific tuna research: Length-frequency sample size determination
(1999) Gomez-Buckley, M.; Conquest, Loveday L.; Zitzer, S.; Miller, Bruce S.
Incidence of coded-wire tagged salmonids in commercial catches in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, 1997-1998
(1998) Farley Jr., Edward V.; Celewycz, Adrian G.; Myers, Katherine W.; Walker, Robert V.
Migrations, abundance, and origins of salmonids in offshore waters of the North Pacific - 1998
(1998) Burgner, Robert L.; Davis, Nancy D.; Hilborn, Ray W.; Hyun, Saang-Yoon; Aydin, Kerim Y.; Myers, Katherine W.; Walker, Robert V.

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