UW Aquatic & Fishery Sciences Quantitative Seminar
Catherine Michielsens and Jim Cave
Pacific Salmon Commission
Revisiting Estimates of Catchability for Fraser River Sockeye from Seine Test fisheries: Analysis of Historical Data in a Bayesian framework
Abstract
The best in-season information on the abundance of Fraser River Sockeye is obtained using in-river hydroacoustic methods. However, more seaward information is required to ensure that conservation targets and catch objectives are met at an earlier point in the migration. Seine test fisheries provide information about the abundance and timing of the salmon run 6 days earlier, however they are notoriously variable and need to be combined with appropriate estimates of catchability to provide reliable run size estimates. In this presentation we will revisit the estimation of the catchability for Fraser River Sockeye from seine test fisheries using Bayesian methods. The different estimates of catchability will be evaluated using the in-season run size model within a retrospective analysis.