U.S. fisheries in Southeast Alaska (SEAK) harvest stocks of Chinook salmon bound for river systems in Alaska, Canada, and the continental U.S. Thus, fisheries in SEAK are managed under the purview of the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST), in which an abundance-based management framework is used for Chinook fisheries. This requires management to have access to reliable information on stock-specific catch, escapement, and recruitment to forecast indices of abundance in PST fisheries.
This project aims to improve fishery management and provide independent estimates of stock composition in commercial troll and sport Chinook salmon fisheries in Southeast Alaska. Further, the project will take the analysis beyond basic estimation of stock composition by combining genetic assignment of individuals from selected stocks and fisheries with their associated age and mark information to provide additional information about Chinook salmon in SEAK fisheries for Chinook Technical Committee needs. This type of information has been used to measure the effectiveness of management actions in SEAK as well as to contribute to applications outside of SEAK (e.g. estimating age-specific terminal returns of stock groups and forecasting returning run sizes). This project is an integral part of a larger SEAK genetic stock identification program for Chinook salmon, which includes comprehensive coverage of major gillnet, troll, and sport fisheries.