2020 Chinook Management Proposal

On March 2, 2020, Fisheries and Oceans Canada released a letter that intended to communicate their approach for developing fisheries management actions to address conservation concerns for Fraser River Chinook over the next year.

On April 9, the MCC submitted a letter in response detailing our Management Recommendations, Rationale and Evaluation. In it we detail management, monitoring, and assessment actions that should be in place for 2020 fisheries across the coast that contribute to Fraser River Chinook Total Mortalities. We also provide a rationale and context underlying our recommendations, and have provided feedback into the Management Measure Evaluation Framework.

The MCC’s proposed 2020 Management Actions for conserving and rebuilding Fraser 5-2 endangered and threatened chinook are in recognition that the 5% total mortality cap for these SMUs was exceeded in 2019, possibly by over 100% in some instances (see Appendix A). This is based on evaluating 2019 total mortalities relative to terminal abundance. If 2019 total mortalities are evaluated relative to escapements, the cap was exceeded by 400 to 600%, depending on the SMU. The absence of GSI make similar estimates for 4-2 Chinook difficult. Indications are that that 2019 impacts on 4-2 Chinook were lower, but likely still exceeded the cap.