At the Council’s September 30, 2009 request the ISRP reviewed the Colville Confederated Tribes’ revised proposal, Resident Fish Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation (#2008-109-00), which is a Columbia River Fish Accords project. The proposal was revised in response to the ISRP’s August 4, 2009 review (ISRP 2009-34). The stated goal of the project is to improve the basic understanding of the population dynamics of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) within the San Poil Subbasin by examining movements and winter ecology among life histories.
The ISRP recommends that the proposal Meets Scientific Review Criteria (Qualified).
Qualification: Sample size justification for the radio-tagging components is necessary. A statistical power analysis that demonstrates that proposed sample sizes will be sufficient to achieve project objectives is required. The statistical analysis of the experimental design should be reviewed by the ISRP before beginning the radio-tagging.
The data this project collects could be of value for developing management strategies for rainbow trout in the San Poil River drainage. The ISRP urges sponsors to continue to work to establish unambiguous hypotheses (questions) that can be answered using the experimental design proposed and to develop a stronger rationale that radio-tagging is the best method to gather the data needed for management.
See the attached memo for details.
