In-season monitoring of harvest and effort from a large-scale subsistence salmon fishery in western Alaska

Staton, Benjamin A.; Bechtol, William R; Coggins Jr., Lewis G.; Decossas, Gary; Esquible, Janessa

doi:10.1139/cjfas-2023-0369

i

In-season monitoring of harvest and effort from a large-scale subsistence salmon fishery in western Alaska

2024
By Staton, Benjamin A. ; Bechtol, William R ; Coggins Jr., Lewis G. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Personal Author:

Staton, Benjamin A. ; Bechtol, William R ; Coggins Jr., Lewis G. ; Decossas, Gary ; Esquible, Janessa
NOAA Program & Office:

NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; SEFSC (Southeast Fisheries Science Center)
Description:

In-season management of salmon harvest requires real-time data. Specifically, following a brief period of open fishing, knowledge of harvest outcomes is useful when deciding the nature of subsequent fishing periods. This in-season management strategy is relatively new to the lower Kuskokwim River of western Alaska, where depressed salmon runs have caused restrictions to the subsistence fishery. We have developed an in-season monitoring program to rapidly inform managers about fishery outcomes from short-duration (6-24 hours) fishery openings. Completed trip information and one or more aerial surveys are combined to estimate daily effort and harvest from drift gillnet fishers spanning 11 communities and ~130 river kilometers. We present a re-analysis of the 40 monitored openers in June-July 2016-2023, and validate harvest estimates of Chinook, chum, and sockeye salmon by comparing them to post-season estimates derived from an independent long-term monitoring program. Our results indicate that the program has produced estimates of sufficient quality to inform in-season managers, although it will likely need alterations to be successful in years with less restricted fishing.
Source:

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (2024)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0369
ISSN:

0706-652X ; 1205-7533
Format:

pdf
Publisher:

Canadian Science Publishing
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:ad3069f05c8234333c6034b15d20b8dbe0dfb54999c31b2a8395701f280bdd4b506569e54b91ff2af6098d72ee425ea09aed2f228854e869154774faada2c5e6
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/69210/noaa_69210_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 1.87 MB ]

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