Nez Perce Tribe Harvest Monitoring Program

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Nez Perce Tribe Harvest Monitoring Program

• By Joseph Y. Oatman
• Harvest Biologist

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2001 Fishing Activity at Rapid River

• Nez Perce tribal member landing a spring chinook
  using a dipnet

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Geographic Location
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3 MAJOR COMPONENTS

• Geographic Location
• Covers 6 subbasins in ID, OR, and WA, and Z6 on
  the Columbia River within our jurisdictional
  authority
• Timing of Fisheries
• By season, location, and species
• ESA Implications
• Manage harvest schedules consistent with
  allowable impact levels established for weak
  stocks

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Timing of Fisheries
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Scientific Justification

• 2000 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife
  Program
• Monitor inriver fisheries and routinely estimate
  stock composition and stock-specific abundance,
  escapement, catch, and age distribution
• Expand monitoring programs as necessary to reduce
  critical uncertainties
• Manage harvest consistent with the protection and
  recovery of naturally spawning populations

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Scientific Justification (Cont.)

• Clearwater Subbasin Summary
• Continue ongoing mitigation programs to provide
  sport and tribal fisheries
• Continue both the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery and
  Lower Snake River Compensation Hatchery
  monitoring and evaluation plans to determine
  harvest management and to include applied
  adaptive management

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Scientific Justification (Cont.)

• Tribal Restoration Plan
• Establish monitoring programs for each subbasin
  to monitor and collect stock-specific data on
  catch, escapement, and age composition
• Adapt current analytical models or develop new
  models to assess information on a stock-by-stock
  basis, information collected will allow
  modification of escapement objectives and harvest
  rate schedules as appropriate

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Program Tasks for Harvest Management

• Consult CRITFC Biometrician to establish and
  implement a monitoring program for the Nez Perce
  Tribe for the Columbia River Basin
• Consult TAC to acquire current computer modeling
  programs that will allow analysis of various
  harvest proposals
• Implement and maintain a fisheries harvest
  monitoring database for each season and target
  species

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Program Tasks (Cont.)

• Prepare Biological Assessments/Tribal Management
  Plans with review by Nez Perce Tribal Executive
  Committee and Nez Perce Tribe Fish and Wildlife
  Commission
• Establish harvest regimes based on escapement
  goals that enable the recovery and restoration of
  all salmon and other fish species
• Establish harvest rates consistent with the
  Conservation Principles of U.S. v. Oregon, other
  applicable case law, and the Treaty of 1855

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Program Tasks (Cont.)

• Develop a training program involving technical
  review and field trials for hired staff
• Supervise and evaluate staff coordinate office
  and field work with management staff monitor
  project expenditures and ensure contract
  deliverables are met maintain inventory, order
  supplies and equipment maintenance

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Fishing Activity 2001
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2001 Sampling Strategy

• Sampling Design
• Excel Spreadsheet - Random Number Generator
• Randomly selects days to monitor for the
  tributaries
• Strata of effort
• weekday versus weekend
• high fishing effort versus low fishing effort
• Logistics
• Few fishermen to cover within the large Snake
  River Subbasin
• Area and travel time dictates the number of
  monitors
• Budget constraints limits effectiveness of
  sampling design

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Rapid River Data

• Harvest Allocation for NPT
• 10,170 hatchery returns, incidental take of 36
  listed fish
• Change gear types to dipnet only when estimated
  harvest for traditional gear types reaches 29
• Data produced
• 7,385 hatchery fish
• 502 wild/naturals handled with an indirect take
  of 36

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2001 Harvest Monitoring Issues

• 1 GSA vehicle for roving monitor during the
  week/transport to Rapid River or South Fork
  Salmon River during the weekend shifts
• Frequent turn-over of employees required
  additional hiring of personnel who owned a
  vehicle
• Use of inter-departmental vehicles, supplies,
  computers, and budget provided for the Harvest
  Monitoring Program infrastructure (i.e., not
  self-sustaining)

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2001 Harvest Monitoring Issues (Cont.)

• Identify and evaluate factors that contributed to
  the imprecision in the harvest monitoring of the
  2001 spring fisheries
• Incorporate an adaptive management framework for
  future fisheries to address limiting constraints
  to effective management

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Conclusion

• Better information derived from a consistent
  sampling strategy will enable the NPT to
  establish more responsive harvest regulations
• Data collection will improve the precision of
  catch estimates, provide age structure of catch,
  and the contribution rates for hatchery fish
• Information can be used to project the harvest
  regimes needed to ensure escapement goals for
  weak stocks

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Conclusion (Cont.)

• Funding would provide for the baseline data
  collection and monitoring efforts required by the
  NPT to meet its management objectives
• The treaty-reserved fishing right sets legal
  precedence for tribal harvest on returning
  anadromous fish, therefore, establishing the need
  to implement a sound harvest monitoring program

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Any Questions ?