PIT-Tag Forecast Database

PIT-Tag Forecast Database

Documenting Current and Planned Tagging Efforts

Background:

The 2008 FCRPS Biological Opinion (BiOp) issued by NOAA Fisheries included a Reasonable and Prudent Alternative measure to develop a regional PIT-tagging plan to complement RME activities specified in the BiOp (RPA 52.6). Additionally, the ISAB recommended that a comprehensive regional tagging/marking plan be constructed, the PIT-tag element being one component. As part of these plans NOAA and NPCC requested that BPA assist in establishing a database where current and future tagging and detection efforts can be catalogued. Toward that end, BPA established a region inventory of current and future PIT-tagging.

The power of this tool being that fisheries managers can review all proposed PIT-tag releases down to the subbasin level, by year and for specific ESU’s and MPG’s. This database system is termed the PIT-Tag Forecaster. There are two primary objectives of this endeavor: First, for fisheries managers to coordinate and integrate tagging and detection efforts among various RM&E studies; and second, to ensure that future tagging efforts include adequate numbers of fish to provide useful monitoring indices as prescribed in the BiOp and the Fish and Wildlife Program.

To accomplish this, a working group comprised of representatives from NOAA, BPA, the USACE, the NPCC, and CBFWA was assembled. They developed the general framework for the inventory and forecaster. BioAnalysts staff constructed a questionnaire in matrix form that was distributed to regional fisheries agencies and Tribal groups to populate. Currently, the database projects PIT-tag effort by project well into the next decade, commencing in 2009. Projections were provided for ongoing and new FWP and USACE projects expected to be funded in future years. The forecaster is currently resident on the CBR website, but may be transferred elsewhere in the future.