DRAFT 2020 Ocean Selective Fishery Sampling Report

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the final stages of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) salmon season setting process, and measures taken to limit the spread of COVID-19 were initiated prior to the planned openings of the 2020 recreational and commercial troll salmon fisheries.

The PFMC adopted 2020 recreational and commercial troll fisheries for all salmon species in the area between Cape Falcon, Oregon and the U.S./Canada border. Recreational and commercial mark-selective fisheries (MSFs) for coho were included in all four Catch Record Card (CRC) areas of coastal Washington (Areas 1, 2, 3, and 4; Fig 1). Council-area fisheries were adopted based on assumptions regarding coho and Chinook abundance, distribution of stocks, Chinook age class distributions, coho mark rates, compliance with selective fishery regulations, and incidental mortality.

The PFMC adopted ocean coho MSFs in Marine Areas 1 through 4 for the twenty-second consecutive year, following state-tribal agreement during the North of Falcon process. No Chinook MSFs were recommended by the Council’s Salmon Advisory Subpanel nor adopted by the PFMC in 2020.

The Ocean Sampling Program (OSP) continued its intensive monitoring program in all accessible ocean ports and collaborated with the Puget Sound Sampling Unit (PSSU) in monitoring the port of Sekiu during the season to collect data to estimate key parameters characterizing the fishery and its impacts on unmarked salmon. All salmon fishery openings were monitored in 2020. Sampling activities included a Voluntary Trip Report (VTR) system and dockside creel sampling. Among other parameters, sampling activities emphasized data collection needs for the estimation of i) the mark rate of the targeted coho population, ii) the total number of coho harvested by mark-status, including an estimate of angler compliance rate with coho MSF regulations, iii) the total number of coho released (by mark-status), iv) the coded-wire tag (CWT) stock composition of landed coho, and v) the total mortality of marked and unmarked coho.