The purpose of this project is to maintain the coho CWT sampling in Northern BC net fisheries. CWT sampling and lab operations methods and standard operating protocols are well established. The project includes:
-Coded wire tag sampling at a 20% rate in any coho retention fisheries in northern BC.
– Sampling at two major landing locations in June, July and August in Prince Rupert and in Port Hardy as required.
– Centralized head lab dissections and data management in Vancouver by a DFO-contracted service provider, as part of the overall DFO Mark Recovery Program
– DFO in kind data management, calculations of CWT estimates and uploads of data to RMIS (Jan 2017).
– Data will be maintained in the DFO cwt database and shared with the US CWT data repository (RMIS) ensuring domestic and international access.
The impacts of net fisheries where coho by-catch retention has recently been restored is an important management concern. Maintaining a core of coho exploitation rate indicators provides essential background for northern panel discussions of coho. Canada has coho exploitation rate indicators in Area 2E, Area 3 and the Skeena (3). CWT’s from Alaskan exploitation indicator stocks are also recovered in Canadian net fisheries. The project also supports evaluation of northern BC impacts on southern origin coho.