Reports & papers By category

Symposium on Ocean Conditions and the Management of Columbia River Salmon

Proceedings of the July 1, 1999 Symposium in Portland, Oregon

edited by Gustavo Bisbal

Contents

1. Preface - Gustavo Bisbal
2. Symposium Agenda
3. Welcome - Todd Maddock

Papers presented
4. Consideration of ocean conditions in the management of salmon - Gustavo A. Bisbal and Willis E. McConnaha
5. Long-term climate and ocean trends and salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest - George H. Taylor
6. Role of the Columbia River estuary and plume in salmon productivity - Ed Casillas
7. Climate, salmon, and preparing for the future - Richard J. Beamish
8. Managing for salmon as if the ocean mattered - Daniel L. Bottom
9. Changes in size at maturity of salmon before and after the ocean regime change of 1976-77: management implications - John H. Helle
10. Ocean variability and population diversity - a match made in heaven. Closing remarks - Robert C. Francis

Other
11. Panel participants
12. Transcript of the panel discussion
13. Symposium speakers: professional qualifications
14. List of attendees

Preface

Gustavo Bisbal, Ph.D.
Northwest Power Planning Council

For many years, scientists have been researching the complex interactions between the ocean climate and different runs of anadromous salmonids. Until recently, however, their observations and the tremendous amount of information generated through their work have done little to alter conventional management perspectives in salmon management. Not surprisingly, the protracted time lag between scientific advances and their incorporation into policy decisions is a recurring weakness ? not just of salmon management programs, but of natural resource administration efforts in general. The end result fosters much frustration and poor policy choices.

In the case of managing Columbia River Basin salmon resources in the context of a variable marine environment, this gap between scientific progress and policy recently seems to have narrowed significantly. For instance, concepts such as the El Ni? Southern Oscillation or inter-decadal scales of environmental variability are no longer limited to a handful of researchers and academicians. Instead, government and society increasingly are aware of sound ecological principles. This new perception invites us to embrace a holistic view of the entire ecosystem experienced by migratory salmon of the Columbia River Basin. This thrust is illustrated by the efforts of the Northwest Power Planning Council to integrate the vast salmon ecosystem through science and policy. Similar perceptions were part of the rationale when the U.S. Congress amended the 1980 Northwest Power Act, in September 1996, to integrate scientific and policy elements into fish and wildlife decision-making. Clearly, the acknowledgement of a broader scope of interest by regional decisionmakers responsible for managing salmon is not the end point. Rather, we are increasingly aware of the complexities before us and recognize we are at the beginning of our learning curve.

The Symposium on Ocean Conditions and the Management of Columbia River Salmon, sponsored by the Council on July 1, 1999, was just one of the many efforts to make sensible and educated progress toward our broader view of salmon management. This event was convened to underscore and discuss contemporary regional perceptions about the interaction between salmon and a variable ocean environment. Understanding this interaction is fundamental to generating a revised list of salmon recovery issues and to realizing how they may be addressed by our management actions.

To illustrate this point, consider the prevailing perception just a few years back. At that time, decision-makers essentially dismissed the ocean environment and focused management attention on the vast extension of the Columbia River Basin, with a multitude of resources ? such as salmon ? and ecological processes interacting within a finite geographic area. In a sense, the physical boundary imposed by the wall of Bonneville Dam represented the edge between where humans experience salmon most frequently and the unknown area downstream. Perhaps the abandonment of this limited scale of observation is one of the most significant changes in regional perception. We now recognize that Bonneville Dam is not a boundary but, rather, that there is a continuum between the Columbia River, its estuary ? where fresh water contacts sea water, the plume ? the extensive discharge of the Columbia that dilutes surface waters of the nearshore Pacific, and the remainder of shelf and oceanic areas extending from northern California to the Gulf of Alaska.

Another change in perception leads us to a slightly different view of the life cycle of salmon. As insignificant as it may sound, our perception evolved from understanding this life cycle to include a "fraction spent at sea" to a more holistic view where the marine residence of salmon becomes much more prominent. As a corollary, this marine portion "added" to the salmon life cycle brings with it a whole new host of factors and processes which vary, as we can anticipate, in broad scales of space and time. Understanding these scales of variability will help us identify problems, opportunities, and priorities.

The Council has endorsed two concepts consistent with these new perceptions. Both are captured in an issue paper completed by the Council in 1997. The first concept consists of a recognition that the estuary and plume are important ecological environments for salmon, and that natural events, river management actions and local actions critically impact them. This is to say, for example, that if we concentrate on the area of the Columbia River estuary we begin to visualize many of the processes and mechanisms altered or disrupted as the result of local changes and decades of interventions in the freshwater system elsewhere in the basin.

The second concept is one that promotes salmon life-history diversity. This survival strategy is the natural mechanism that evolved in salmon in response to changing conditions. A wide array of life histories provide alternative pathways to survival, growth, and reproduction, all of which define the "fit" of individuals to their environment and shape different populations over evolutionary time. We argue that it is necessary to modify and adjust those management actions that restrict the natural expression of salmon life history diversity.

The day-long symposium convened on July 1 was our attempt to seek professional input from a select group of experts who included leading authorities in the fields of climatology, oceanography and fishery sciences, to expand many of the arguments, emphasize fundamental principles and provide a more detailed account of current regional thinking. We also benefited from the presence of some of the top resource administrators in the region, who proposed some provocative questions on how to incorporate current scientific understanding about the variability of conditions in the marine environment into salmon management. Representatives of federal, state, and tribal entities, members of the public, and private interests attended the event. The collective concerns, contributions, and perceptions of all of those who attended the symposium are recorded in these proceedings. Together, we began to improve our perceptions and to tailor our management response to the challenges ahead.

In closing, I want to extend my personal gratitude to the speakers at the symposium, members of the panel, and the audience for their interest and participation. Also, I want to express my appreciation for the excellent quality of help provided by members, professional and administrative staff of the Northwest Power Planning Council in making this symposium a success.

^ top  |  agenda >