Project Information

Title: Salmon Coded-Wire Tag Studies in Prince William Sound FS03 1992

Project Year and Number: 1992: FS03

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 1991: FS03, 1990: FS03, 1989: FS03

Principal Investigator (PI): David Evans (Alaska Department of Fish & Game)

Managing Agency: ADFG

Assisting Personnel: Brian Bue, Carol Peckham, Larry Peltz, Dan Sharp, Samuel Sharr, Jodi Smith, Mark Willette

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Damage Assessment

Injured Resources Addressed: Pink Salmon

Abstract: This is a close-out budget for a damage assessment project based on coded-wire tagging of pink salmon in Prince William Sound. The tags, applied as part of NRDA and restoration activities since 1989, have been partially recovered and the analyses of these data are needed to estimate reductions in salmon production attributable to injury from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. These data are important to understanding the nature of the spill-related injury as well as designing and assessing the success of important management related restoration implementation projects. The commercial fishery in Prince William Sound is of major economic importance and also plays a major role in regulating populations of salmon in Prince William Sound. Wild stocks which were injured by the Exxon Valdez oil spill play a major role in the Prince William Sound ecosystem and are frequently intercepted in mixed stock fisheries dominated by hatchery fish. Fisheries cannot be managed to totally exclude the harvest of wild fish without compromising the quality of hatchery fish harvest. However, with prior knowledge of hatchery and wild stock abundance and distributions, fisheries managers may limit interceptions of wild fish. Data from this project will guide the design of future tagging projects. Future tagging projects for stock identification will be used to restore salmon populations by selectively reducing harvest of injured stocks while permitting the continued harvest of hatchery surpluses.


Proposal: View (14 KB)

Reports:
Final Report: View (1,647 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available