Assessing Fisheries Management

How do we assess the effectiveness of salmon fishery management goals, objectives and strategies – that is, management systems - toward maintaining the diversity, productivity, abundance and spatial distribution of individual wild salmon populations (and population complexes)?  This ecological outcome is the essential ingredient for providing long-term economic and social benefits that can be derived through sustainable salmon harvest.

Fisheries management alone cannot ensure the health of wild salmon ecosystems and their unique populations.  Managing human impacts from a variety of land and water uses, such as commercial and residential development, dams, logging, irrigation, mineral extraction, agriculture and grazing, is also essential.  In addition, natural variation in environmental conditions like stream flows and temperatures, as well marine survival conditions, significantly influences status and trends of wild salmon populations. 

Nevertheless, assessment of fisheries management performance is an important element of the conservation science tool kit.  It answers the question, “If we do a good job protecting the condition and productivity of the places salmon live and reproduce, will fisheries be adequately managed so that abundant wild fish reach their spawning grounds to ensure self-sustaining reproduction for current and future generations?”  

An affirmative answer to this question requires that fishery management systems must have not only a strong science-based, biological foundation but they also must be operationally proficient at responding to annually and seasonally changing conditions.  For instance, if marine survival is poor and salmon returns to certain regions or rivers are well below expected levels, a robust approach would be evidenced by managers responsively constraining harvest based on actual abundance of fish to ensure the numbers, composition and distribution of spawners needed to replenish future runs. 

This initial version of the toolkit seeks to:

1. Provide context about salmon management systems
2. Outline key salmon management principles and performance standards; and
3. Outline examples of how performance assessment can be used to provide market incentives for fisheries management system improvements.