The Willapa Commercials Consultant report was a bit large and simply did not take to C&P as the formatting really took a hike! So here are his recommendations such as they are but keep in mind he was hired by a user group to develop a supporting document for the Willapa Gillnettters and NOT as the IFSP that the Commercials ( and District 17 staff ) hate. The IFSP were hired by Jim Scott ( AD Fish Program ) charged with working INDEPENDENTLY to develop mortality rates in fisheries for Grays Harbor and Willapa. Rec hooking mortality went up as did the commercial release mortality but the Gillnetters who have never been held accountable ( particulary by District 17 staff WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MONITORING COMMERCIAL FISHINGS ) and it appears the guys are having problems with the concept that " it ain't OK to cook the books"!

Quote:
The Department should provide the commercial fishing fleet with information pertaining to the need/justification for a 4% increase in the recreat ional fishing harvest allocation.


This is my personal favorite. The Commercial Fleet take over 85% of the harvest in Willapa and this guy wants justification for the 15% or less the Recs get? " You got to be kidding me" is about the nicest way to respond to that with "Your shi--- me" closing in for the lead.


So here you are:


Recommendation Summary

list of primary recommendations in order of priority:

l) The Department should not use the IFSP to address noncompliance with regulations, and the noncompliance rate adjustment should be removed because it has no empirical basis. Moreover, a subjective noncompliance rate has already been applied to FRAM harvest rate estimates and inclusion of the same rate in the planning model would be redundant.

2) The Department should remove drop-out/off mortality rates from the Willapa Bay planning model because they have no empirical basis and subjective rates have already been incorporated into FRAM harvest rate estimates. WDFW should also develop a study plan to inform true estimates of drop-out and drop-off mortality.

3) The assumed post-release mortality rate for large and small mesh sizes should not exceed the rate agreed to by the TAC (40%) to account for bias in study results reported in Ashbrook et al. (2004). Furthermore, The number of factors affecting prespawning mortality increases with migration distance and time; therefore, additional reductions in assumed non-retention mortality must be made to account for life-history differences between spring and fall Chinook salmon.

4) WDFW should provide a clear explanation of the need to reduce the harvest impact on natural origin Naselle River Chinook salmon before finalizing rules for the 2014 commercial season.

5) To facilitate the comment/review process, justification for model structure and inputs should be compiled into a single report rather than relying on reviewers to compile numerous memos, reports, and public meeting synopses.

6) The Department should build upon and/or modify my explanation as needed to develop an accurate reflection of how the proposed fishery differs from previous seasons.

7) The Department should provide hind-cast estimates of the commercial fishery length (days) for the last l0 years under the new management regime proposed for 2014.

8) Efforts should be made to collect species-specific data to improve the accuracy of chum salmon non-retention mortality estimates.

9) The Department should provide the commercial fishing fleet with information pertaining to the need/justification for a 4% increase in the recreat ional fishing harvest allocation.



Edited by Rivrguy (06/25/14 11:34 AM)
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in