At the Council’s April 29 request, the ISRP reviewed the joint U.S. Geological Survey and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s revised proposal titled Understanding the influence of predation by introduced fishes on juvenile salmonids in the Columbia River Basin: closing some knowledge gaps (2008-719-00). This proposal is intended to meet research needs described in the 2008 Biological Opinion for the Federal Columbia River Power System (BiOp), specifically, Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RAP) 44: develop strategies to reduce non-indigenous fish. In addition, the Obama Administration’s Adaptive Management Implementation Plan (AMP; page 18) calls for enhanced research on salmon predators and invasive species.
The ISRP finds that the revised proposal meets scientific review criteria (qualified). The qualification is that the project proponents may need to revise the study design for Objective 4 if insufficient numbers of smallmouth bass are collected by angling from tailrace areas in order to make dietary comparisons to forebay areas and alternate methods need to be attempted. See the attached memo for details.
