Assessing the Utility of In-season Salmon Assessment Projects on the Kuskokwim River

disciplines needed to address natural and cultural resource management issues at multiple scales and in an ecosystem context. The research team will use management strategy evaluation (MSE) methodology to evaluate the relative utility of in-season assessment projects with different characteristics related to the temporal and geographic proximity to major salmon harvest fisheries. The assessment projects will be subject to different levels of observation error and will index various portions of the run from less than one percent simulating the current test fishery, to 5 percent simulating a robust in-season fishery dependent survey, to greater than 90 percent simulating a well sited sonar project. The projects will simulate error in species and age composition similar to what is encountered in similar projects observing salmon runs. The purpose of the study will be to evaluate the relative utility of a proposed sonar project versus other types of in-season assessment projects to inform inseason management decisions. A key element of the MSE will be to use probabilistic control rules based on contemporary pstar methodology.