EVOS Trustee Council Herring Tagging Workshop Workshop proceedings: tagging and marking techniques applicable to the restoration of herring in Prince William Sound December 11 and 12, 2008 EVOSTC Office – Anchorage, Alaska Final Report - July 2009 EVOSTC Herring Tagging Workshop Table of Contents Executive summary ....................................................................................................................................7 Perspectives on herring tagging and the workshop..................................................................... 7 Conclusions and recommendations from the workshop ............................................................. 9 Chapter One - Workshop Overview and Report Goals .......................................................................10 Content and organization of the report ..................................................................................... 10 Limitations and potential applications of the report ................................................................. 10 Workshop Agenda .................................................................................................................... 11 Report Goals ............................................................................................................................. 12 Strengths and weaknesses of the workshop .............................................................................. 12 Definitions and concepts ........................................................................................................... 13 • Tags versus marks ...............................................................................................................13 • Internal and external tags or marks. ....................................................................................14 • Active and passive tags. ......................................................................................................14 • Release and recovery. .........................................................................................................14 • Meta-populations, populations, local populations, sub-populations, and stocks. ...............15 • Hatchery, spawn, egg, milt, larvae, broodstock ..................................................................16 Chapter Two - Summaries and Commentaries.....................................................................................17 Summary 1: Herring behavior and biology .............................................................................. 17 Commentary 1:.......................................................................................................................... 18 Summary 2: Pacific Herring Stock Status in Prince William Sound ........................................ 18 Commentary 2 ........................................................................................................................... 19 Summary 3: External tags –review of British Columbia programs .......................................... 20 Commentary 3. .......................................................................................................................... 20 Summary 4: Coded Wire tags, Implant Elastomer marks and alpha tags ................................. 20 Commentary 4 ........................................................................................................................... 20 Summary 5: Otoliths marks – two related chapters .................................................................. 22 Commentary 5 ........................................................................................................................... 22 Summary 6: Acoustic Tags - Will they work? What life stages? ............................................. 23 Commentary 6 ........................................................................................................................... 23 Summary 7: Fatty Acid Signatures – Stable over time? ........................................................... 24 Commentary 7 ........................................................................................................................... 24 Summary 8: Genetic Marking Strategies .................................................................................. 25 Summary 8 ................................................................................................................................ 25 Commentary 8 ........................................................................................................................... 25 Summary 9: Genetic marking methods ..................................................................................... 26 Commentary 9 ........................................................................................................................... 26 Summary 10: Sampling considerations of a mass marking program to evaluate herring enhancement efforts .................................................................................................................. 27 Commentary 10 ......................................................................................................................... 28 Summary 11. Instrumentation and Recovery of Marks on Fish Hard Parts (Particularly Otoliths) ................................................................................................................................................... 28 2 Final Report - July 2009 Commentary 11 ......................................................................................................................... 28 Summary 12: Alaska Department of Fish and Game Fish Transport – genetic issues and strategies ................................................................................................................................... 29 Commentary 12 ......................................................................................................................... 29 Literature cited in Chapter 2. .................................................................................................... 29 Chapter Three - Synthesis, Comparisons and Recommendations ......................................................31 Life-History versus marking methodology ............................................................................... 31 • Application-recovery of chemical and dyes (Rows 2-4 and Columns 1-2 in Table 1) .......31 • Application-recovery of external tags (Rows 4-8, Columns 5-6 in Table 1). .....................31 • Application-recovery of internal coded wire (cwt) tags (Rows 4-8, Columns 7-8 in Table 1). ..........................................................................................................................................31 • Application-recovery of acoustic tags (Rows 4-8, Columns 7-8 in Table 1). ....................32 • Application-recovery of genetic fingerprints (Row 1, Columns 1-14 in Table 1). .............32 • Application-recovery of fatty acid signature (Row 1, Columns 1-14 in Table 1). .............32 • Table 1. Simplified life history stages of Pacific herring in Prince William Sound ..........33 Comparisons among approaches............................................................................................... 34 A review of real or perceived obstacles to implementation of marking or tagging .................. 37 • 1. Public perception. ...........................................................................................................37 • 3. Technical knowledge and capability ...............................................................................37 • 4. Technical limitations – a ‘recovery’ dilemma ................................................................37 • 5. Costs. ...............................................................................................................................38 Chapter Four - Prince William Sound Pacific Herring Stock Status .................................................39 Prince William Sound Pacific herring regulatory management plan ........................................ 39 Stock assessment program ........................................................................................................ 41 Current stock status ................................................................................................................... 41 Decline and lack of recovery .................................................................................................... 42 Literature cited .......................................................................................................................... 43 Chapter Five - Internal Belly Tags and External Anchor Tags ..........................................................45 Chapter Six - Sampling Considerations .................................................................................................50 Sampling and mass marking for evaluation of herring enhancement ....................................... 50 • Figure 1(a). Sample sizes necessary to achieve a confidence interval of + 5 %................52 • Figure 2. The 95% confidence bounds as a function of the size of the population ...........53 • Figure 3. Changes in the 95% confidence interval range ..................................................54 • Figure 5. Sample size to achieve 95% CI with 5% precision .............................................55 References ................................................................................................................................