Pre-assessment for Western Kamchatka Salmon Fishery Prepared for “Vityaz-Avto Co” Ltd and “Delta Co” Ltd [OOO Витязь-Авто и ООО Дельта] Contact: Mr. Andrei Bokov Str. Stepnaya 5, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatsky region, Russian Federation Prepared by Wild Salmon Center 721 NW Ninth Avenue, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97209 U.S.A. Assessment Team: Randy Ericksen, Wild Salmon Center Jocelyn Drugan, Ph.D., Wild Salmon Center Denis Semenov, WWF Russia November 21, 2014 Table of Contents 1. Executive summary ................................................................................................................ 2 2. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 2 2.1 Aims/scope of pre-assessment ............................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Constraints to the pre-assessment of the fishery ........................................................................... 3 2.3 Unit(s) of certification ................................................................................................................................ 3 3. Description of the fishery .................................................................................................... 4 3.1 Scope of the fishery in relation to the MSC programme .............................................................. 4 3.2 Overview of the fishery .............................................................................................................................. 4 3.3 Principle One: Target species background ........................................................................................ 8 3.4 Principle Two: Ecosystem background ............................................................................................ 20 3.5 Principle Three: Management system background .................................................................... 25 4. Evaluation Procedure ......................................................................................................... 36 4.1 Assessment methodologies used ........................................................................................................ 36 4.2 Summary of site visits and meetings held during pre-assessment ...................................... 36 4.3 Stakeholders to be consulted during a full assessment ............................................................ 37 4.4 Harmonisation with any overlapping MSC certified fisheries ............................................... 37 5. Traceability (issues relevant to chain of custody certification) .......................... 37 5.1 Eligibility of fishery products to enter further chains of custody ......................................... 37 6. Preliminary evaluation of the fishery ........................................................................... 38 6.1 Applicability of the default assessment tree .................................................................................. 38 6.1.1 Expectations regarding use of the Risk-Based Framework (RBF) ................................... 38 6.2 Evaluation of the fishery ......................................................................................................................... 38 6.2.1 Other issues specific to this fishery ................................................................................................ 39 6.3 Summary of likely PI scoring levels ................................................................................................... 40 References ..................................................................................................................................... 41 Annex 1. Provisional evaluation of the fishery against the Performance Indicators 44 Pre-assessment evaluation tables ......................................................................................... 45 Principle 1 Even-year Pink Salmon ............................................................................................................... 45 Principle 1 Odd-year Pink Salmon ................................................................................................................. 55 Principle 1 Chum Salmon ................................................................................................................................... 62 Principle 1 Sockeye Salmon .............................................................................................................................. 70 Principle 1 Coho Salmon ..................................................................................................................................... 77 Principle 2 ................................................................................................................................................................. 84 Principle 3 ................................................................................................................................................................. 99 Western Kamchatka Pre-Assessment Report page 1 1. Executive summary Randy Ericksen and Jocelyn Drugan of the Wild Salmon Center conducted this assessment with the assistance of Denis Semenov of World Wildlife Fund, Russia. This was a desktop assessment conducted using information requested from the clients. The clients compiled information they had available and requested information from KamchatNIRO as appropriate. The clients were responsible for translating information into English. Some, but not all, information requested was provided. Additional information was obtained from the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) website. The client fisheries occur in the western part of Kamchatka Peninsula on the Sea of Okhotsk coast (coastal trap nets) and the lower reaches (beach seines) of six large coastal rivers, the Ozernaya, Koshegochek, Golgina, Opala, Kol and Vorovskaya. The pre-assessment covers wild pink, chum, and coho salmon returning to all of these rivers, as well as sockeye salmon (excluding Ozernaya River sockeye salmon which are currently certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)). This is not considered an enhanced fishery because there are no hatcheries in the certification unit. The fishery targets pink salmon during even-years and other species (primarily chum and coho salmon) during odd-years when pink salmon are less abundant. Information provided indicates that annual runs of these species have been stable or increasing in recent years. Sockeye and odd-year pink salmon are not targeted in these fisheries but are caught incidentally. Aggregate escapement targets for the entire Western Kamchatka Region have been developed for even-year pink salmon and coho salmon. There are also sockeye salmon escapement targets for individual lake-systems in the certification unit. KamchatNIRO stated that optimal production of chum salmon is achieved with a minimum aggregate escapement of 800,000 fish, but it was not clear if this was an official management target or a general guideline. The clients did not provide escapement data sufficient for assessing management performance relative to escapement targets. Escapement data available from NPAFC suggests that even-year pink salmon escapements have been fluctuating around their escapement targets, but escapements of coho and chum salmon have been below their targets. Available escapement data for sockeye salmon was insufficient to assess management performance in the certification unit. Based on the information provided, even-year pink salmon could likely achieve MSC certification with conditions as long as data is provided verifying that escapements are generally meeting escapement targets. However, the likelihood of certification is somewhat uncertain due to the large number of “yellow” scores for the Principle 2 and 3 indicators that could result in Principle scores less than 80. It is unlikely that the other species would achieve MSC certification based on the information provided for this pre-assessment. Information available from NPAFC suggests that Western Kamchatka chum and coho salmon are not meeting escapement targets. The data provided was insufficient for determining whether odd-year pink salmon and sockeye salmon are meeting escapement targets. Information is needed from KamchatNIRO to justify the escapement targets and demonstrate that stocks are generally meeting the targets. 2. Introduction 2.1 Aims/scope of pre-assessment This report provides a pre-assessment of salmon fisheries according to standards of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for the clients “Vityaz-Avto Co” Ltd and “Delta Co” Ltd. The client companies fish for the following Pacific salmon species: pink salmon (Oncorhynchus Western Kamchatka Pre-Assessment Report page 2 gorbuscha), chum salmon (O. keta), sockeye salmon (O. nerka), and coho salmon (O. kisutch). This pre-assessment includes pink, chum, and coho salmon caught in the Vorovskaya, Kol, Opala, and Ozernaya rivers, as well as sockeye salmon for the Vorovskaya, Kol, and Opala rivers. Ozernaya River sockeye salmon have already been MSC certified under a separate assessment. This report only provides recommendations; full certification will be conducted completely independently of pre-assessment results. A pre- assessment of a fishery does not attempt to duplicate a full assessment against the MSC standard. A full assessment involves expert team members and public consultation stages