At the Council’s October 20, 2010, request, the ISRP reviewed a change of scope for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s proposal, Tucannon Steelhead and Spring Chinook Expanded PIT Tagging, 2010-042-00. This proposal was favorably reviewed during the Fast Track proposal review for projects designed to fill monitoring and evaluation gaps identified for the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinion (BiOp).
The original proposal was to "purchase of PIT-tags and operation of a remote PIT detector array to expand current WDFW monitoring of natural steelhead VSP metrics, and to better describe adult stray behavior, survival and spatial distribution into the Snake basin." The expanded activities, that are the subject of this review, are to add Chinook PIT-tagging and monitoring to the proposal. The ISRP has already reviewed the steelhead component, so this review only pertains to the added work with Chinook.
Recommendation: Meets Scientific Review Criteria (Qualified)
Qualification: The ISRP recommends that the proponents should define the level of precision they need for specific metrics, and if needed have Dr. John Skalski, University of Washington, help with establishing the required numbers of juveniles for tagging. Dr. Skalski is under contract to BPA to provide statistical analysis and design support to Fish and Wildlife Program projects. This should be done for both steelhead and Chinook. If the steelhead need substantially more individuals tagged, a discussion of additional smolt capture would be justified.
The ISRP does not need to see a response to the qualification, and the proponent may add precision estimates/discussion at or prior to contract finalization with BPA and the Council.
