Lee's Ferry Recommendations
- Recast the management objectives as sports fishery metrics (catch rate, fish size).
- Retain the creel survey
- Abandon fixed sites and use a fully random design- increase # of random sites
- Consider reducing trips from 3-4 to 1-2. CV can increase fo 15-20%
- Make fuller use of age information
Little Colorado Region HBC
Compare lower LCR FWS catch data and AZGF lower 1200m sampling to determine if both programs are now needed.
Evaluate the benefits of the second (fall) FWS mark recapture estimate:
- Can juvenile abundance be indexed by the spring series?
- How many (or few) PIT tags are needed to maintain ASMR?
Continue development of the PIT tag antennae
- Full channel width
- 2 arrays to evaluate movement
- On-site continuous maintenance needed?
Develop stock assessment framework for LCR humpback chub
- Integrate information from all programs into agreed upon format for annual reporting
ASMR runs at 3-5 year interval
- Can ASMR detect variation in recruitment?
"Minimum handling" as a management objective
- PIT tag loss and tagging and tag-related mortality
- Unknown sub-lethal effects
Mainstem Recommendations
Consider reducing the mainstem electrofishing survey to an annual trip rather than 2x/yr.
- Current estimates of trout CPUE are precise
- Analysis to determine what loss of information would result
Evaluate undesired non-native species for:
- Risk to native fish (potential for establishment and impact)
- Points of entry
- Preferred habitats or likely sampling locations and gear types Based on #2, develop new sampling protocol for surveying for non-native fish that are not well sampled by the e/f program
- Fixed sites at hotspots
- Multiple gear types
- Opportunistic surveillance
- Non-random "informed" sampling
Clarify objectives and expectations for the mainstem HBC populations to provide direction.
- What frequency of survey is needed for the adult aggregations?
- How many aggregations need to be surveyed?
- What level of spatial and temporal effort is warranted for spawning and recruitment surveys?
Institutional Issues
- Most programs are beyond the experimental stage and the reporting and analysis of annual updates can be standardized.
- Are there sufficient resources for integration and analysis?
- Organize reporting around objectives rather than agency/trip reports - e.g., integrate non-native catch information across all sampling programs
- The Adaptive Management question: Are the flow experiments and the monitoring program operating at the same scale?
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