Observing survival after trawler deck-release with satellite tags

Craig S. Rose, FishNext Research Julie Nielsen, Kingfisher Marine Research John Gauvin, Alaska Seafood Cooperative Tim Loher, Int. Commission Paige Drobny, Spearfish Research Andrew Seitz & Michael Courtney, U of Alaska Fairbanks, SAFS Suresh Sethi, Alaska Pacific Univ. and Cornell

Funded by grants from the North Pacific Research Board and NOAA’s Saltonstall-Kennedy program (all ) 4.9 million mt (2015 AFSC shelf survey) • Yellowfish aspera • Northern Lepidopsetta polyxystra • Flathead sole elassodon • Alaska Pleuronectes quadrituberculatus • Arrowtooth Atherethes stomias • Pacific halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis Also: Greenland , Kamchatka flounder, rex sole, Dover sole, Bering flounder, , butter sole, longnose dab, starry flounder Trawl fisheries for flatfish in the Bering Sea • 225,000 - 250,000 mt / year recently (NMFS AKR) Other Flatfish Flathead Sole • Catcher / processor vessels • Quotas allocated by vessel Pacific halibut Yellowfin Rock Sole Sole (, must be released)

• Fixed halibut bycatch mortality limits - allocated between vessels • Significant constraint • Recently reduced • Catches sampled entering processing area (after holding) Trawler deck-sorting to reduce halibut mortality • Deck-sort to release bycaught halibut as soon as possible • Much lower mortality than if put into holding tanks • Current survival estimates from onboard viability assessments • Structured set of reflex and injury observations • Scored Excellent, Poor, ‘Dead’ • Viability survival rates (E-80%, P-45%, D-10%) based on 1970 tag releases • Vessel specific mortality estimates for trials Project Goals • Apply modern tag technology to validate and improve the foundation for halibut survival rates • Develop tag tools and metrics to monitor halibut survival (Julie Nielsen’s earlier talk) • Compare viability-based survival outcomes with those indicated by recorded halibut activity • Find conditions that improve survival • Guide further survival improvements Deployment Trips Tags on: 160 trawl releases 20 Controls

Flounder, turbot ATF/GTR_2 (25)

Halibut Pac. Ocn. Perch longline (10) POP_2 (8) YFS_1 (39) YFS_3 (45)

Trawl - June Flathead sole FHS_1 (34) Trawl - June Trawl - Aug Longline – Jul1 Halibut handling and data • Stratified halibut selection – Time on deck • 1 per 5 minute intervals – random time within • Video viability assessments • Reflex and injury scan, scored Excellent, Poor, or ‘Dead’ • Scored from videos by 5 experienced observers Camera • and handling data recorded • fish length • humidity • time-on-deck • sand in catch • tow duration • sea state • deck temperature • trawl net • seafloor temperature • excluder use Tags popped up and reported

• Data reported from 0 – 4.9 days 5 – 14.9 days all 180 tags! (only one with too little data to use) • Some appeared to release from active fish (anchor failure?)

• Most recoveries in 15 – 59.9 days 60+ days vicinity of release, at all durations • Some longer movements from full or near-full deployment periods Classification of activity data: live or dead and when Alive all 60 days Died after 3 days

• Scored by 6 reviewers • Majority outcome after reconciliation discussion (Nine dropped – still tied or too uncertain) Analysis methods • Kaplan-Meyer survival curves – estimate probability of surviving by time since release (can account for early releases) Trip

• Cox proportional hazards modelling to regress multiple factors against survival period. Viability scores D P E Survival analysis .01 .45 .80 Key features of survival curves Nearly all deaths occurred in the first 2 weeks

Variability by Trip-Target Survival analysis Compare survival estimates between tagging results and from viability scores

100% Viability Survival 90% Tag Survival 80% Most Trip-Targets have reasonable matches 70% (POP only 8 fish) 60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0% ATF/GTR_2 FHS_1 POP_2 YFS_1 YFS_3 Trip 3 (YFS) high viability, Low tag survival Survival by trip and viability

• Most trip/targets – Survival rates by viability score similar to each other and standard rates • YFS Trip 3 – Survival rates for Excellent Poor excellent and poor scores ‘Dead’ substantially lower than other trips and standard rates Third trip hypotheses Increased mortality due to: Surface/air temperatures Deck handling

Assessment handling Third trip hypotheses Viability assessments overestimated: Pre – assessment recovery tank

Multiple potential differences unique to Trip 3 precluded isolating a single cause for the low survival of released halibut in spite of scoring high viabilities Factors predicting mortality Handling, fish size, environmental Cox proportional hazards model AIC Measurement pvalue import. SpecimenLength 0.003 97% OnDeckTime 0.007 92% Trip1-FHS 0.862 Trip2-POP 0.149 96% Trip1-YFS 0.004 Trip3-YFS 0.012 TowDuration 0.010 92% Sediment in n.s. 27% catch DeckTemp* n.s. 37% CatchSize n.s. 26% * - Also Surface Temp, Surface Temp – Bottom Temp (all highly correlated) Factors predicting mortality Model comparison (132 halibut with viabilities)

Model structure Npars AIC R2 Without Viability DaysSurvive ~ All factors except Viability 10 640 0.47 DaysSurvive ~ SpecimenLength 1 652 0.20 DaysSurvive ~ OnDeckTime 1 653 0.19 DaysSurvive ~ Trip/Catch 4 662 0.16 DaysSurvive ~ TowDuration 1 662 0.09 DaysSurvive ~ SpecimenLength + OnDeckTime + TowDuration 3 641 0.34 DaysSurvive ~ SpecimenLength + OnDeckTime + TowDuration + Trip/Catch 7 637 0.45 With Viability DaysSurvive ~ All factors including Viability 12 591 0.74 DaysSurvive ~ Viability 2 623 0.47 DaysSurvive ~ Viability + SpecimenLength + OnDeckTime + Tow Duration 5 601 0.64 DaysSurvive ~ Viability + SpecimenLength + OnDeckTime + TowDuration + Trip/Catch 9 591 0.72 Next steps

• Better understand variation across fisheries/seasons/vessels • Viability scoring from deck sorts • More tagging? How to distribute? • Explore survival monitoring options • Viability? Length-TOD-Tow time? Both? • How much variability is acceptable? • Does monitoring motivate practices that increase survival? • Further tag developments for survival use Summary • Acceleration-only tags measure survival and tell us a lot about what happens to halibut after deck release • Deck sort process greatly improves halibut survival (Time on deck <25 min. vs. hours) • Viability predicts survival well – except for trip 3 – Could not isolate specific cause • Fish size, time-on-deck and tow time all influence survival • Trip and Fishery variability is also significant Questions?

Discussion

• Thanks to: Captains and crews of: Viability reviewers F/V Constellation Elanor Wolfe • Coauthors! F/V Cape Horn Nicholas Rubino Laura Mowczan • Sarah Webster F/V Arica Alisha Foster F/V Darlynne Christopher Kromm Length composition of tagged halibut

25 ATF/GTR_2 (25) 20 FHS_1 (22)

15 POP_2 (8) YFS_1 (36)

Number 10 YFS_3 (41) 5

0 50 60 70 80 90 Length (nearest 10 cm)

15 December 2017 IFS 10 21