fish report header

Inside the Matrix for Salmonid Life Cycle Monitoring

May 12, 2014

 

Coastal salmonid monitoring can be very challenging due to the typical environmental characteristics of coastal streams, as well as the migration characteristics of coastal salmon and steelhead. Since 2011, FISHBIO has been working with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz under the direction of Sean Hayes of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to develop a decision matrix tool for identifying the most suitable salmonid life cycle monitoring station techniques at a given site. The recently completed decision matrix focuses on Santa Cruz County's Scott Creek as a case study, and can be applied to other coastal coho and steelhead streams. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Fisheries Restoration Grant Program funded the creation of the decision matrix, which is now available along with a final report. The report outlines how to use the matrix, and provides examples based on the Scott Creek case study.

 

CDFW and NMFS are encouraging the implementation of anadromous salmonid monitoring on coastal streams through the California Coastal Monitoring Program (CMP). The intent is to develop more robust population and habitat datasets to improve the conservation of coastal coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead. In order to collect data needed for the CMP to achieve its goals, researchers must use the life cycle monitoring techniques best suited for their particular study sites, as well as identify possibilities for applying new technologies. Many researchers have embraced technologies such as the DIDSON/ARIS sonar cameras, particularly in the flashy, turbid waters of coastal streams. However, during a panel discussion at a recent conference of the California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, NMFS status review teams expressed that DIDSON technology has too many limitations to be considered "best available science" for collecting population data. Researchers will now be able to use the criteria in the decision matrix to help justify their use of technologies such as the DIDSON, or identify alternative, more suitable monitoring methods.   

 

The matrix helps streamline the decision making process based on environmental parameters (such as channel depth, water velocity, turbidity, and substrate mobility), and other considerations such as cost, equipment portability, and lead time. For example, the highly variable flows in Scott Creek can mobilize relatively large, lightweight cobble during salmonid migration periods, which limits the types of equipment that can be used during these crucial monitoring periods. Researchers can use the decision matrix to objectively and quantitatively compare alternative techniques, and rank them based on their appropriateness. In the future, the matrix will benefit from experienced station operators providing feedback regarding its scoring criteria, which can be used to modify and increase the accuracy or scope of the criteria. While the matrix was developed for California coastal streams, and has been effectively used at Scott Creek, it is designed to be broadly applicable. Researchers in other salmonid watersheds can modify the matrix beyond its current focus on fixed-station monitoring to develop general salmonid monitoring plans.

Follow Us! Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter View our photos on flickr View our videos on YouTube
email list
Recent Blog Posts
Growing girls in STEM
What comes to mind when you hear this word: 'scientist'? If you pictured a gray-haired man in a lab coat that looks remarkably like Albert Einstein, then you are not alone, according to the CEO of Expanding Your Horizons. FISHBIO recently participated in an outreach event hosted by this network of professionals, educators, parents, and community leaders in the Bay Area of California, who want to change that default image of "scientist" to include women. Despite the statistic that women today currently earn 41% of the PhDs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, there is still a vast gender gap when it comes to women who actually have a STEM career (women represent only 24% of the STEM workforce). Statistics like these have motivated the White House to highlight our country's need for more girls to become scientists and engineers if we want "to out-build, out-educate, and out-innovate future competitors." A crucial part of maintaining our competitive edge is identifying strong role models who can inspire girls to see themselves as our nation's future scientists and engineers.

FISHBIO staff hardly fit the description of gray-haired men in lab coats, and we are passionate about sharing our enthusiasm for fisheries research and fieldwork. In the past two months, we have lead two events to show girls just how cool, fun, and fascinating fisheries research can be... Read more >
IN THE NEWS: Recent stories you might have missed...
Fishing in the gene pool for new species  
National Geographic

One day last summer, Michael LeMoine, a Ph.D. candidate in fisheries biology at the University of Montana, carried a nondescript cardboard box into the Missoula FedEx office. Inside it was a jar of ethanol containing a single specimen of a new species of a type of fish called a sculpin. The woman at the counter asked LeMoine for the value of the contents. He hesitated, considering. "My trouble, ma'am," he remembers answering, "is that you don't know this, but this is a new species in this box,.. Read more > 

Something fishy about high level of Stanislaus River 
Modesto Bee
We are in a drought, and a bad one at that. Three years and counting. Some area groundwater wells have gone dry and others might still. New orchards require pumping more water from the aquifer. The major reservoirs in the foothills won't be able to meet farming needs up and down the Valley, and lake levels could drop to the point at which more pieces of history will come back into plain view for the first time in decades... Read more >
High expectations as salmon season opens
The San Francisco Chronicle 

Dozens of fishing boats dropped lines into calm waters along the California coast Thursday in hopes of bringing the year's first locally caught salmon to market by the weekend. The state's celebrated commercial salmon season arrived Thursday morning amid high expectations. Preliminary fish counts this year have been relatively strong, and sport fishermen, whose season started last month, have reported decent catches so far... Read more > 

U.S. climate has already changed, study finds, citing heat and floods     

New York Times  

The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects. Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found... Read more > 

El Ni�o probability raised to 78 percent for next winter

San Jose Mercury News

Drought-weary California, heading into a long, hot summer of water shortages and extreme fire risk, received some potentially good news Thursday: Federal scientists announced there is now a 4-in-5 chance of El Ni�o conditions developing by the end of the year. El Ni�o events -- when warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean at the equator affect the jet stream -- can lead to wetter winters in California... Read more > 

fishbio.com     info@fishbio.com