Evaluation of the condition and survival of coho salmon bycatch encountered in the Area B commercial purse seine fishery of British Columbia

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The Area B Seine Society is an association that represents a commercial fishing industry group in BC that uses seine nets to target Pacific salmon in coastal waters. The commercial seine net fishery is constrained by the fact that while targeting some species (e.g., sockeye or pink salmon) they inadvertently capture endangered stocks of coho salmon. At present, regulators assume a 70% mortality rate for coho salmon bycatch in the Juan de Fuca Strait. Once the industry-wide encounter of coho multiplied by the mortality rate of 70% exceeds a threshold, fishing is halted even though the target species remain abundant. In no other seine fishery in BC waters does the mortality rate used by DFO exceed 25% emphasizing the anomaly of the current coho mortality estimate of 70% used in Juan de Fuca Strait. Needed is a reliable and scientifically defensible estimate of mortality for coho salmon captured by seine to inform management actions. Cooke and his team would generate the necessary credible biological knowledge for the industry partner using modern and defensible research methods. The field component of the research activity would occur in the coastal waters of BC aboard a commercial purse seine vessel (industry in kind contribution of $50K - $5K/day for 10 days) operating under a scientific research permit. When coho are encountered we would intercept them from the fishers and immediately evaluate their condition (obtain nonlethal blood and DNA samples and evaluate reflexes) and hold a subset in onboard tanks to evaluate short term mortality or release a subset to evaluate post-release mortality with telemetry tags. Addressing this coho bycatch issue has the potential to dramatically increase fishing opportunities which would have substantial and immediate socio-economic benefits for the fishers and associated industries (e.g., processing plants, food service industry, boat building, net manufacturing, fuel sales).