[Senate Hearing 115-805]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                                        S. Hrg. 115-805

                        THE STATE OF OUR SALMON

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               before the

                  SUBCOMMITTEE ON OCEANS, ATMOSPHERE, 
                      FISHERIES, AND COAST GUARD

                                 of the

                         COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
                      SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION
                               __________

                            OCTOBER 20, 2018
                               __________

    Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                             Transportation 
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
               [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 



               


                Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov 
                                 ______

                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 

55-981 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2024                












                
                
       SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION

                     ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                   JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman
ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi         BILL NELSON, Florida, Ranking
ROY BLUNT, Missouri                  MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
TED CRUZ, Texas                      AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska                RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JERRY MORAN, Kansas                  BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska                 EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
DEAN HELLER, Nevada                  TOM UDALL, New Mexico
JAMES INHOFE, Oklahoma               GARY PETERS, Michigan
MIKE LEE, Utah                       TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin               TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia  MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
CORY GARDNER, Colorado               CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
TODD YOUNG, Indiana                  JON TESTER, Montana
                       Nick Rossi, Staff Director
                 Adrian Arnakis, Deputy Staff Director
                    Jason Van Beek, General Counsel
                 Kim Lipsky, Democratic Staff Director
              Chris Day, Democratic Deputy Staff Director
                      Renae Black, Senior Counsel 
                      
                                 ------                                

            SUBCOMMITTEE ON OCEANS, ATMOSPHERE, FISHERIES, 
                            AND COAST GUARD

DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska, Chairman       TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin, Ranking
ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi         MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska                RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JAMES INHOFE, Oklahoma               BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
MIKE LEE, Utah                       EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin               GARY PETERS, Michigan
CORY GARDNER, Colorado
TODD YOUNG, Indiana 












                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on October 20, 2018.................................     1
Statement of Senator Sullivan....................................     1

                               Witnesses

Chris Oliver, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National 
  Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
  Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce....................     4
    Prepared statement...........................................     5
Sam Cotten, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Fish and Game.....     8
    Prepared statement...........................................    10
Bill Templin, M.S., Chief Fisheries Scientist, Division of 
  Commercial Fisheries, Alaska Department of Fish and Game.......    14
James Hasbrouck, Ph.D., Chief Fisheries Scientist, Division of 
  Sportfish, Alaska Department of Fish and Game..................    17
Dr. Milo Adkison, Ph.D., Professor and Chair Department of 
  Fisheries, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University 
  of Alaska Fairbanks............................................    26
    Prepared statement...........................................    28
Dr. Matthew Baker, Ph.D., Science Director, North Pacific 
  Research Board.................................................    32
    Prepared statement...........................................    33
Karen Gillis, Executive Director, Bering Sea Fishermen's 
  Association....................................................    44
    Prepared statement...........................................    46
Katrina Hoffman, M.S., President and CEO, Prince William Sound 
  Science Center.................................................    64
    Prepared statement...........................................    66
Mary Sattler Peltola, Executive Director, Kuskokwim River Inter-
  Tribal Fish Commission.........................................    71
    Prepared statement...........................................    73
Danielle Dickson, Senior Program Manager, Chief Officer for 
  Collaboration and Synthesis, North Pacific Research Board......    83

                                Appendix

Additional Testimony of Sam Cotten, Commissioner, Alaska 
  Department of Fish and Game....................................    89

 
                        THE STATE OF OUR SALMON

                              ----------                              

                       SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2018

                               U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and 
                                       Coast Guard,
        Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
                                                     Anchorage, AK.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m. at the 
Tyonek Room, Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, 600 West 7th 
Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska, Hon. Dan Sullivan, Chairman of the 
Subcommittee, presiding.
    Present: Senator Sullivan [presiding].

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAN SULLIVAN, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

    Senator Sullivan. The Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation will now come to order. I want to begin by 
apologizing. I was just up giving my remarks for the keynote 
address, and it went a little long, which is something that we 
as senators do all the time, so I apologize about that.
    But what I do want to do is first thank everybody. I want 
to thank everybody for being here. I really want to thank our 
witnesses, which I think everybody is going to see, we have a 
world class, world class set of witnesses.
    And I do want to just begin by giving you an opening of 
what we are trying to achieve here today with this hearing. 
First of all, this is an official U.S. Senate Subcommittee 
hearing, the Subcommittee on Fisheries, NOAA and the Coast 
Guard. I chair that subcommittee back in Washington. And in 
addition to my staff here, we have staff from the Commerce 
Committee in Washington. So all of this will be transcribed, as 
you are seeing, and this is an official hearing here.
    I want to start by thanking our hosts today, the Alaska 
Federation of Natives. With a robust schedule of events and 
various other activities adjacent to the annual AFN convention, 
both time and space is very, very precious. So I want to thank 
AFN today for providing this meeting room and for all of you 
for taking the time to be here, particularly our witnesses, 
which we have a really, really all-star two panels here.
    I had no doubt that this hearing would provoke interest. 
Alaska's fisheries are important to our state's heart and soul. 
Our fisheries are iconic. We all love salmon. And we are the 
most important fishery in the country, by far. And one of the 
most important fisheries in the world, by far.
    Every summer when I'm at my family's fish camp on the 
Yukon, I'm reminded of the important cultural and spiritual 
sustenance provided by our salmon for all Alaskans. For me 
there is no more special place in the world, and I know that 
tens of thousands of Alaskans, whether using their fish wheels, 
nets or rods or reels, feel the same way when they are catching 
salmon.
    As I constantly remind my colleagues back in D.C., Alaska's 
fisheries are by far the largest in the nation, accounting for 
over 50 percent of total domestic landings for the country and 
tens of thousands of jobs. In many communities, our fisheries 
are the backbone of their economy. Our fisheries are the heart 
and soul of many of our Native cultures. And as I constantly 
remind my colleagues in D.C., we, Alaska, are the super power 
of seafood for America.
    At the same time, we are not without challenges. From 
Ketchikan to Cordova to Kodiak, from Grayling to Emmonak and 
everywhere else I've had the privilege of traveling across in 
our great state, the health of the salmon fishery is always on 
the forefront of the minds of Alaskans.
    In response to their experience and many varying theories 
of what is occurring, whether ocean acidification, the so-
called warm water blob or something entirely different, I 
called this hearing to review the science behind Alaska's 
salmon fisheries.
    And as I mentioned, I am pleased to have an impressive 
panel of experts here today to discuss these issues, including 
our Federal and state managers. Using the best science 
available is an essential tenet for fisheries management and is 
necessary for maintaining healthy and sustainable stocks for 
generations to come.
    This hearing is intended to examine current data available 
and identify information and scientific gaps. Both the state 
and Federal Government have a role in providing that science. 
In conjunction with the assistance of our academic and other 
research institutions, I would argue the knowledge of the 
fishermen themselves who are closest to the resource and most 
reliant on its bounty for their livelihoods and subsistence 
needs are also critical.
    Over the course of our state's history, our fisheries have 
come a long way. Concern over collapsing fisheries and Federal 
mismanagement motivated many of Alaska's founding fathers to 
fight for statehood. Salmon, in particular, is a large part of 
the reason Alaska became a state.
    In 1959, the year Alaska became a state, the statewide 
harvest of salmon was only 25 million fish. Think about that. 
For a period of that year, Bristol Bay was shut down entirely. 
Think about that for a second. Shut down entirely with no 
openings on the horizon.
    At the time of statehood, there were many issues: Boundless 
overfishing from foreign fleets right off our shores, 
inadequate or nonexistent science, lack of management controls, 
fish traps that were devastating the sustainability of our 
fisheries, and others.
    But over the last six decades, working together, Alaska's 
fisheries have grown to become world class. On the Federal 
level, laws like the Magnuson-Stevens Act led by Don Young and 
the late great Senator Ted Stevens, kicked out the foreign 
fleets and increased scientific investment by integrating 
vigorous science-based standards into the management process.
    And on the state level, managers have abided by the 
sustained yield principles and enshrined in Alaska's 
Constitution, not without some controversy and pain along the 
way. The result, last year, the 2017 statewide salmon harvest 
topped 225 million fish. Twenty-five million at statehood in 
1959, 225 million in 2017. In the early 1970s, Bristol Bay saw 
harvests of around 1 million sockeye. This year over 40 million 
sockeye, the second highest year on record and the largest run 
ever. And we are routinely now seeing over 35 million fish 
harvested annually in Bristol Bay.
    Over the past 60 years there have been ups and downs, booms 
and busts, but the numbers speak for themselves. But lately--
and this is an important reason for this hearing--things have 
not been normal. They have been unusual. While the three 
largest Alaskan salmon harvests occurred between 2013 and 2017, 
Congress had to step in with 56 million dollars in relief funds 
for a pink salmon fishery disaster in 2016. This builds on the 
disaster declared for the Yukon River, for the Kuskokwim River, 
for Cook Inlet Chinook in 2012, and Yukon River salmon in 2009.
    This year salmon harvests are unlikely to hit preseason 
forecasts of 147 million fish. Even in some areas that met 
preseason forecasts, run timing was abnormal, negatively 
affecting fishermen, coastal communities and fishery-dependent 
businesses. However, in other areas of Alaska, most notably 
around Nome and Kotzebue, salmon harvests have never been 
better.
    I am committed to supporting scientific investment to 
better understand and manage our fisheries so that our wild 
salmon can continue to sustain us for thousands of years into 
the future. I will continue to work with all our fishermen 
across the state: commercial, recreational, charter, and 
subsistence--to ensure that we have a stable food supply, 
recreational and subsistence opportunities, and plentiful 
fishing and processing jobs that provide for vibrant coastal 
communities.
    You may have also seen that we are working on sustainable 
oceans with a bill that I authored recently and was signed into 
law just two weeks ago called the ``Save Our Seas Act'' that 
deals with the issue of ocean debris and plastics, which is a 
huge problem, but we are making progress. And we are working on 
the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
    But I do want to emphasize, the point of this hearing is to 
be able to ask questions of the experts. Everywhere I go in 
Alaska, people ask what is happening. And I'm not sure 
everybody knows, particularly as it relates to the king salmon.
    So I'm honored to have our witnesses here, and I want to 
welcome our witnesses: Chris Oliver, who is the Assistant 
Administrator for Fisheries for the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. Some of you might know that 
Chris was the top Executive Director for our Pacific fisheries, 
North Pacific Fisheries Council, for many years. He's an 
Alaskan who is now the top Federal official in charge of 
fisheries in America. He is here.
    And of course, we have Sam Cotten, who is the Commissioner 
of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Each of you 
gentlemen will have 5 minutes to deliver an oral statement, and 
a longer written statement will be included in the record.
    Mr. Oliver, the floor is yours.

     STATEMENT OF CHRIS OLIVER, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR 
       FOR FISHERIES, NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, 
       NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, 
       U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

    Mr. Oliver. Thank you, Senator. And good morning. And it's 
great to be back home here in the great State of Alaska.
    On the science front, our Alaska Fisheries Science Center 
collaborates closely with the Alaska Department of Fish and 
Game in a number of ways, including several integrated 
ecosystem surveys where data is used to forecast adult salmon 
returns and to meet our obligations under the Pacific Salmon 
Treaty.
    One example is the collaborative research that we do on 
Southeast coastal monitoring survey, which is used to produce 
an annual forecast of pink salmon returns, and we also conduct 
surveys in the Bering Sea, including a preseason forecast of 
Yukon River returns.
    What are we seeing? Gulf of Alaska pink salmon returns were 
expectedly low during 2015, 2016, and 2017, and sockeye salmon 
returns were unexpectedly low during 2018 in most areas of the 
state. Chinook salmon returns in Southeast reached record lows 
in 2018.
    As you mentioned, in Bristol Bay we set a new record or the 
second record in 2018, but Chinook salmon returns in Western 
Alaska are at or below average. We also collect a variety of 
ecosystem information during these surveys, including sea 
surface temperature, phytoplankton, zooplankton, forage 
fisheries and juvenile fish condition. We study that because 
it's a good indication of how many fish are going to survive to 
contribute to the future spawning population.
    Because we have these long-term data sets, we are better 
able to understand ecosystem impacts, phenomenonalist events 
like the blob, which was a large mass of unusually warm water 
that formed in the eastern Pacific in 2013 and persisted for 
several years. Our ecosystem surveys during spring and late 
summer found big changes to the ecosystem as a result of the 
blob, including less food available for fish along the Gulf 
shelf than in previous years.
    Obviously, salmon returns to the Gulf one to three years 
after the blob were much lower than predicted. In the context 
of Federal fisheries management, they are managed in the 
exclusive economic zone under a fishery management plan 
developed through the North Pacific Council and approved by 
Secretary of Commerce, which largely prohibits harvest of 
salmon in Federal waters.
    In 2012 we comprehensively revised the FMP with Amendment 
12 to comply with new Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements to more 
clearly reflect the Council's policy with regard to state of 
Alaska management authority. In 2013, Cook Inlet commercial 
fishermen and seafood processors filed a lawsuit in Federal 
district court challenging Amendment 12.
    The Ninth Circuit determined that the Magnuson-Stevens Act 
does require councils to prepare and submit and FMPs that 
require conservation and management and that no other provision 
creates an exception to that statutory requirement, and 
therefore the Cook Inlet portion of the salmon fishery that we 
had excluded under our fishery management plan and deferred to 
the state must be included in the FMP.
    In response to that, the Council is considering how to 
revise that FMP, including an option for continued deferral to 
the state. Salmon are also, incidentally, caught in federally 
managed groundfish fisheries, primarily pollock.
    And I would note that the Council and NOAA fisheries have 
taken a number of actions over the past 10 years to greatly 
reduce that salmon bycatch in both the Bering Sea and the Gulf 
of Alaska. While bycatch represents a very small fraction 
overall of the total adult runs that are likely to occur in any 
one system, we know how important salmon are to the subsistence 
culture and economy of Alaska, and the Council and our agency 
take this issue very seriously.
    On the international front, there is a component of salmon 
management signed by Canada and the U.S. in 1985. The Pacific 
Salmon Treaty provides a management framework for this species. 
The Treaty resolved longstanding interception disputes between 
the U.S. and Canada, as well as between Alaska, the northwest 
states and treaty Indian tribes. Chinook salmon is of coast-
wide significance and is negotiated directly by U.S. and 
Canadian commissioners.
    With the current harvest sharing agreement set to expire at 
the end of this year, U.S. and Canadian representatives met 
regularly over the past 2 years to negotiate proposed 
amendments to the five fishing regimes contained in the treaty. 
That recently achieved agreement, which includes reductions in 
Chinook harvest levels by all parties and is currently 
undergoing formal review by the two governments with 
implementation expected in 2019.
    And last I'll speak briefly to the recent pink salmon 
disaster declaration. In response to a request from Governor 
Walker in the fall of 2016, the Secretary made a determination 
of the commercial fishery failure in seven management areas of 
the state. Congress subsequently appropriated funds to address 
that. We are currently reviewing the spending plans, or are 
about to review the spending plans submitted to NOAA to 
distribute funds that will support individuals, businesses, and 
fishery-independent communities throughout a range of actions 
that will improve the long-term sustainability of the fishery.
    I will conclude at this point, Mr. Chairman. I see my time 
is up. Thank you again, and I'd be happy to answer any 
questions.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Oliver follows:]

    Prepared Statement of Chris Oliver, Assistant Administrator for 
  Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and 
                              Atmospheric 
              Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
    Good afternoon, Chairman Sullivan. My name is Chris Oliver and I am 
the Assistant Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Thank 
you for inviting me to testify today on the state of Alaska salmon. As 
you know, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship of the Nation's ocean 
resources and their habitat. We provide vital services for the nation: 
productive and sustainable fisheries, safe sources of seafood, the 
recovery and conservation of protected resources, and healthy 
ecosystems--all backed by sound science and an ecosystem-based approach 
to management.
Alaska Salmon Science and Stock Status
    Salmon have a complex life cycle that involves a freshwater rearing 
period, followed by a period of ocean feeding prior to their spawning 
migration back to freshwater. Salmon migrate and feed over great 
distances during their marine life stage. While there is great 
diversity in the range and migratory habits among different species of 
salmon, there also is a remarkable consistency in the migratory habit 
within stock groups, which greatly facilitates stock-specific fishery 
planning. Most salmon stocks are vulnerable to harvest by numerous 
commercial and sport fisheries in marine areas. Salmon are also taken 
in rivers and streams during their spawning migration by subsistence, 
sport, commercial, and personal use fishermen.
    The Alaska Fisheries Science Center collaborates with the Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) on several integrated ecosystem 
surveys used to forecast adult salmon returns. One example is our 
collaborative research efforts with ADF&G on the Southeast Coastal 
Monitoring survey, which has been conducted for the past 21 years. The 
results are used to produce an annual forecast of pink salmon returns 
to Southeast Alaska. We also conduct a survey in the Northern Bering 
Sea (the Bering Arctic/Subarctic Integrated Survey). One of the 
products of this survey, produced annually, is a pre-season forecast of 
Yukon River Chinook salmon returns. In the Southern Bering Sea 
extension of this survey, we are also able to monitor juvenile Pacific 
salmon and provide data to resource managers biennially.
    So what we are seeing during such surveys? In the Gulf of Alaska, 
pink salmon returns were unexpectedly low during 2015, 2016, and 2017, 
and sockeye salmon returns were unexpectedly low during 2018. Chinook 
salmon returns from the Southeast reached record lows in 2018. In the 
Eastern Bering Sea, sockeye salmon returns to Bristol Bay during 2018 
set a new record high and Chinook salmon returns to Western Alaska 
appear at or below average.
    During the surveys, we also collect a variety of ecosystem 
information on sea surface temperature, phytoplankton, zooplankton, 
forage fishes and juvenile fish. The condition of juvenile fish is a 
good indication of how many fish are going to survive to contribute to 
the future spawning population. If young fish have been able to find 
food and are in a good condition, they are more likely to make it 
through their first winter and become adults.
    Because we have long term data sets from these surveys, we are able 
to better understand the ecosystem impacts from events such as the 
``blob.'' The blob was a large mass of unusually warm water that formed 
in the eastern Pacific Ocean in 2013 and persisted for several years. 
It formed as the result of a highly unusual atmospheric condition that 
produced a very strong high-pressure ridge in the Gulf of Alaska during 
winter, reducing the intensity and frequency of storms. This lack of 
storm events allowed the surface waters of the Gulf to remain warm. The 
anomalously warm sea temperatures were not only found at the surface, 
but as deep as 200m in some places. Surveys during spring and late 
summer found big changes to the ecosystem as a result the blob, 
including less food available for fishes than in previous years.
    Consequently, salmon returns to the Gulf of Alaska 1 to 3 years 
after the ``blob'' event were much lower than predicted. In the Eastern 
Bering Sea, surface temperatures remain warmer than average and the 
ecosystem productivity is similar to previous warm water years (e.g., 
producing less nutritious zooplankton). Our long-term data sets from 
ecosystem surveys in this region enable us to anticipate how salmon 
will respond to current warm conditions. For example, juvenile Bristol 
Bay sockeye salmon are likely to do relatively well because they have 
sufficient food resources, while the outlook for juvenile western 
Alaska Chinook salmon is not as good because some of their preferred 
prey is less abundant in warm conditions.
Overview of Federal Salmon Management
    Salmon fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off Alaska 
are managed under the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the salmon 
fisheries in the EEZ off Alaska. In 2012, the North Pacific Fishery 
Management Council (Council) comprehensively revised the FMP with 
Amendment 12 to comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements, such as 
annual catch limits and accountability measures, and to more clearly 
reflect the Council's policy with regard to State of Alaska management 
authority for commercial and sport salmon fisheries in the EEZ. Part of 
that action was to defer management of three traditional net fishing 
areas--Cook Inlet, the Alaska Peninsula, and Prince William Sound--to 
State management. As a result, the State of Alaska manages the 
fisheries in those three areas in Federal waters.
    In 2013, Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishermen and seafood 
processors filed a lawsuit in Federal district court challenging 
Amendment 12 and its implementing regulations. The lawsuit focused on 
Amendment 12's deferral to State management of the Cook Inlet Area. The 
Ninth Circuit determined that Magnuson-Stevens Act section 302(h)(1) 
requires a Council to prepare and submit FMPs for each fishery under 
its authority that requires conservation and management and that no 
other provision in the Magnuson-Stevens Act creates an exception to 
this statutory requirement. Because the Council and NMFS concluded that 
the Cook Inlet salmon fishery requires conservation and management by 
some entity, the Ninth Circuit found that the Cook Inlet portion of the 
salmon fishery must be included in the FMP given the statutory language 
of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
    In response to the Ninth Circuit ruling, the Council is considering 
how to revise the FMP to manage the salmon fishery that occurs in the 
Federal waters of Cook Inlet. The Council is considering new management 
measures that comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements for the 
salmon fisheries that occur within these three areas, such as status 
determination criteria, annual catch limits, and accountability 
measures and is considering an option that would defer to state 
management. In addition, the Council formed a stakeholder committee, 
called the Cook Inlet Salmon Committee, to assist in developing the 
measures to manage the commercial fishery in Cook Inlet. Finally, the 
Council is scheduled to review a discussion paper and the committee's 
recommendations at their December 2018 Council meeting.
    Salmon are also incidentally caught as bycatch in the federally-
managed groundfish fisheries off Alaska, primarily by the pollock 
fisheries. The Council and NMFS have taken a number of actions to both 
monitor and reduce salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska 
in recent years. Chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock 
fishery is limited by regulation and pollock fishermen participate in 
contracts that provide incentives for each vessel to avoid Chinook and 
chum salmon bycatch at all times. The goal is to allow the pollock 
fisheries to catch the full total allowable catch while staying within 
specified salmon bycatch limits. For 2019, Chinook salmon abundance, 
measured by a State of Alaska index, is below a threshold by the 
Council, requiring NMFS to further reduce the Chinook salmon bycatch 
limits for each pollock fishing sector.
Pacific Salmon Treaty
    There is an international component of salmon management as well. 
Signed by Canada and the U.S. in 1985, the Pacific Salmon Treaty 
provides a framework for the two countries to cooperate on the 
management of Pacific salmon. A high degree of cooperation is required 
to prevent overfishing, provide optimum production, and ensure that 
each country receives benefits that are equivalent to the production of 
salmon in its waters.
    The treaty resolved long-standing salmon interception disputes 
between the U.S. and Canada as well as between Alaska and Northwest 
states and treaty Indian tribes. The treaty implementing legislation 
stipulates that decision-making within the U.S. Section is established 
by consensus of the U.S. Commissioners from affected states and treaty 
Indian tribes. Fishing regimes under the treaty (contained in Annex IV) 
are generally re-negotiated every ten years. Most chapters expire at 
the end of 2018 and were the subject of re-negotiation recently 
completed by the Canadian and U.S. Sections to the Commission.
    With the current harvest sharing agreement set to expire on 
December 31, 2018, Canadian and U.S. representatives on the Pacific 
Salmon Commission met regularly over the course of two years to 
negotiate proposed amendments to five fishing regimes contained in 
Annex IV of the treaty. The chapter addressing Chinook salmon was the 
primary, but not sole, focus of the re-negotiation. While coho, chum, 
sockeye and pink salmon regimes are largely negotiated by regional 
representatives, Chinook salmon is of coast-wide significance and 
negotiated directly by U.S. and Canadian Commissioners. The agreement 
is currently undergoing formal review by the two governments in an 
effort to bring the amendments into force by January 2019, and to 
provisionally apply the proposed amendments, in the event that the 
final exchange of diplomatic notes is delayed. In addition, NMFS will 
complete an Endangered Species Act consultation on any new 
discretionary domestic actions taken as a result of the amendments.
2016 Pink Salmon Failure
    In 2016, Alaska experienced abnormally low returns of pink salmon 
throughout the Gulf of Alaska. In response to a request from Alaska's 
Governor in the fall of that year, the Secretary of Commerce made the 
determination, in January 2017, of a commercial fishery failure for 
pink salmon in seven management areas in State waters. In reaction to 
multiple fisheries disasters declared on the west coast and Alaska, as 
well as those related to Hurricanes Maria, Irma, and Harvey, Congress 
appropriated Federal funds to address these commercial fishery failures 
in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Of the $200M of dedicated funds, 
$56.3M was subsequently directed for disaster relief to address the 
2016 Gulf of Alaska pink salmon failure. Eligible recipients must 
submit spending plans to NOAA for approval. These funds will support 
individuals, businesses, and fishery dependent communities through a 
range of actions that will improve the long term sustainability of the 
fishery.
    This concludes my testimony. Thank you again for the opportunity to 
testify before you today. I would be happy to answer any questions you 
may have.

    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Oliver. Commissioner 
Cotten.

            STATEMENT OF SAM COTTEN, COMMISSIONER, 
              ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME

    Commissioner Cotten. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Sullivan. And I guess our audio system is out 
throughout the whole building, so everybody will have to 
project a little so everybody can hear.
    Commissioner Cotten. I can try to do that, Senator. And 
before I begin, I wanted to say thank you for allowing me to 
include my leadership staff as part of this exercise today. To 
my side here is Dr. Jim Hasbrouck, who is a Chief Fisheries 
Scientist for the Division of Sportfish; Mr. Bill Templin, 
Chief Fisheries Scientist for the Division of Commercial Fish.
    Senator Sullivan. Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you for being 
here.
    Commissioner Cotten. And behind me are other members of the 
leadership team. Hazel Nelson is the Director of the Division 
of Subsistence; Tom Brookover, Director of the Division of 
Sportfish; and Forrest Bowers, Director of the Division of Comm 
Fish.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you.
    Commissioner Cotten. Between this group here, not counting 
me, there is about 115 years of experience with the Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game intensely involved with salmon 
management.
    Senator Sullivan. We thank you for your service. Thank you.
    Commissioner Cotten. So thank you, Mr. Chairman, for 
holding this hearing.
    My name is Sam Cotten. I am the Commissioner of the State 
of Alaska Department of Fish and Game. We understand and 
appreciate the role of the United States in salmon management 
in Alaska. The Bureau of Indian Affairs oversees fisheries 
management for the Annette Island Reserve. The U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service has actively managed the Kuskokwim River 
Chinook salmon subsistence fishery for the past 5 years.
    And it's important to note that there is no secret that 
people that live on the river systems in Alaska have an intense 
dependence and, as a result, an intense interest in the 
management. So we make a strong effort to work with the folks 
that live in these systems and try to gain as much as we can 
from their local and traditional knowledge.
    The Department of Commerce through the North Pacific 
Fisheries Management Council sets salmon bycatch limits in 
Federal fisheries. The Department of Commerce and the 
Department of State are responsible for the approval and 
ratification of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. And as was pointed 
out by Mr. Oliver, the Department of Commerce determines and 
then the U.S. Congress considers whether to fund fishery 
disasters.
    In addition, Alaska participation on the North Pacific 
Fisheries Management Council is very important, and we are 
thankful we have been able to maintain our voting majority. And 
as the MSA is being reconsidered, we know--we've heard from 
residents of other states that perhaps we shouldn't have that 
majority, so we appreciate very much maintaining that.
    Senator Sullivan. That is going to happen, I can guarantee 
you, or it won't pass.
    Commissioner Cotten. The Council is currently addressing a 
recent Ninth Circuit Court decision that has taken away state 
management in three areas that Alaska has managed since 
statehood. We believe the court got it wrong and have suggested 
changes in Federal law that would return that authority to 
Alaska.
    We work with the National Marine Fisheries Service on 
several fronts, including ocean survey work that is important 
to both governments. Stable funding of these projects is 
important. I believe we have a very good, actually outstanding 
working relationship with the National Marine Fisheries Service 
at both the regional and national levels. One area of 
particular concern is with the observer program and its 
limitations due to funding constraints. The observer program 
has been improved, but does not enjoy the level of Federal 
support seen in other regions of the United States. Observer 
coverage is important for several reasons, and in Alaska we are 
especially concerned with salmon bycatch in Federal fisheries.
    Alaska salmon fisheries have experienced wile variations in 
recent years. This year Bristol Bay sockeye salmon set records, 
the largest run in history with the greatest value. Bering Sea 
systems generally were outstanding, with the exception of 
Chinook salmon. The Gulf of Alaska saw very poor and in some 
cases, Chignik in particular, there was no commercial harvest. 
Pink salmon returns typically vary on odd/even-year cycles. In 
the past decades, those variations have set records for highs 
and lows. We are all painfully aware of the extremely poor 
returns of Chinook salmon throughout the state and many parts 
of the west coast of the U.S.
    Salmon are extremely important to Alaska's people. In the 
past 4 years, I've traveled throughout the state meeting with 
people in all regions to hear concerns, occasional complaints 
and ideas about our salmon and how to best manage it.
    Alaska's constitution requires managing fisheries under the 
sustained yield principle. For salmon we do that using 
scientifically-based escapement goals to ensure a sufficient 
number of spawning fish produce future generations. We use our 
regulatory and permitting framework to protect freshwater 
salmon habitat.
    Alaska prioritizes subsistence use and supports all uses of 
salmon: Commercial, personal use, sport and guided sport. In 
upper Cook Inlet, managing fisheries for all users is a major 
challenge. At least half the state's population lives nearby. 
Traditional sport and commercial fishermen have been 
participants for many decades. The sportfish industry, guides, 
lodges, charters and other businesses that benefit from this 
important economic sector have grown. The personal use dipnet 
fisheries are relatively new and very popular--I think last 
year we issued 30,000 permits--and an important source of fish 
for people from all parts of Alaska.
    Many people enjoy fishing opportunities in the Mat-Su 
Valley, as well, and pay close attention to the management 
practices of the department and the allocation decisions made 
by the Board of Fisheries.
    Governor Walker has created the Cook Inlet Salmon Task 
Force in an effort to get all users to, in his words, talk to 
each other rather than talk about each other. We are hopeful 
the participants who represent all these groups can find some 
common ground and make recommendations to the Governor and the 
Boards of Fisheries.
    Historically Alaska has seen challenges that we have 
overcome. Federal management of salmon when Alaska was a 
territory was a failure by all accounts. With statehood, Alaska 
took over management and rebuilt our runs. Foreign fleets were 
able to intercept salmon before they reached our river systems. 
Thanks to the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act, also known as the 
200-mile limit, we have stopped that assault. Those were 
political solutions that were appropriate and successful.
    Today's problems are not political. They require science, 
more information, more data and more collaboration. We are 
working with the Federal Government, University of Alaska, 
other universities, partners from all sectors of Alaska's 
fishing participants, the North Pacific Research Board, the 
North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the North Pacific 
Anadromous Fish Commission, as well as many other international 
organizations with an interest in salmon.
    2019 is being designated as the year of the salmon. We hope 
to capitalize on this occasion. We expect there will be many 
new opportunities to pursue answers and solutions to the 
questions that surround the state of salmon.
    The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is the largest 
science organization in Alaska. We look forward to advancing 
the best science available to ensure the long-term health and 
sustainability of our most important natural resource.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    [The prepared statement of Commissioner Cotten follows:]

            Prepared Statement of Sam Cotten, Commissioner, 
                   Alaska Department of Fish and Game
                   
    Good morning Senator Sullivan. Thanks for holding this hearing. My 
name is Sam Cotten and I am the Commissioner of the State of Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game. We understand and appreciate the role of 
the United States in salmon management in Alaska. The Bureau of Indian 
Affairs (BIA) oversees fishery management for the Annette Island 
Reserve. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) service has actively 
managed the Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon subsistence fishery for the 
past five years. The Department of Commerce, through the North Pacific 
Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), sets salmon bycatch limits in 
Federal fisheries. The Department of Commerce and State of Alaska are 
responsible for approval and ratification of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. 
The Department of Commerce determines, and the United States Congress 
considers, funding for fishery disasters in our state.
    In addition, Alaska's participation on the NPFMC is very important 
and we are thankful we have been able to maintain our voting majority. 
The Council is currently addressing a recent Ninth Circuit decision 
that has taken away state salmon management in three areas that Alaska 
has managed since statehood. We believe the court got it wrong and have 
suggested changes in Federal law that would return the authority to 
Alaska.
    We work with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on 
several fronts including ocean survey work that is important to both 
governments. Stable funding of these projects is important. I believe 
we have a very good working relationship with NMFS at both the regional 
and national levels. One area of particular concern is with the 
observer program and its limitations due to funding constraints. The 
observer program has been improved but does not enjoy the level of 
Federal support seen in other regions of the United States. Observer 
coverage is important for several reasons. In Alaska we are especially 
concerned with salmon bycatch in Federal fisheries.
    Alaska salmon fisheries have experienced wild variations in recent 
years. This year, Bristol Bay sockeye salmon set records as the largest 
run in history with the greatest value. Bering Sea systems generally 
were outstanding, with the exception of Chinook salmon. The Gulf of 
Alaska saw very poor runs and, in some cases--Chignik in particular, 
there was no commercial harvest.
    Pink salmon returns typically vary on odd/even-year cycles. In the 
past decade those variations have set records for highs and lows. We 
are all painfully aware of the extremely poor returns of Chinook salmon 
throughout the state.
    Salmon are extremely important to Alaska's people. In the past four 
years I have traveled throughout the state, meeting with people in all 
regions to hear concerns, complaints and ideas about our salmon and its 
management.
    Alaska's constitution requires managing fisheries under the 
sustained yield principle. For salmon, we do that using scientifically 
based escapement goals to insure a sufficient number of spawning fish 
are available to produce future generations. We use our regulatory and 
permitting framework to protect freshwater salmon habitat.
    Alaska prioritizes subsistence use and supports all uses of salmon: 
commercial, personal use, sport and guided sport. In upper Cook Inlet, 
managing fisheries for all users is a major challenge. At least half of 
the state's population lives nearby. Traditional sport and commercial 
fishermen have been participants for many decades. The sport fish 
industry; guides, lodges, charter and other businesses that benefit 
from this important economic sector have grown. The personal use dipnet 
fisheries are relatively new, very popular (30,000 permits) and an 
important source of fish for people from all parts of Alaska. Many 
people enjoy fishing opportunities in the Mat-Su and pay close 
attention to the management practices of the department and the 
allocation decisions of the Board of Fisheries (BOF). Gov. Walker has 
created the Cook Inlet Salmon Task Force in an effort to get all users 
to talk to each other rather than about each other. We are hopeful the 
participants who represent all groups can find some common ground and 
make recommendations to the governor and the Board of Fisheries.
    Historically, Alaska has seen challenges that we have overcome. 
Federal management of salmon when Alaska was a territory was a failure 
by all accounts. With statehood Alaska took over management and rebuilt 
our runs. Foreign fleets were able to intercept salmon before they 
reached our river systems; thanks to the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries 
Act, also known as the 200-mile limit, we have stopped that assault.
    Those were political solutions that were appropriate and 
successful. Today's problems are not political. They require better 
science, more information, more data and more collaborative approaches. 
Alaska occupies the center of the Pacific salmon range and Alaskans 
feel the effect when changes happen within that environment. For this 
reason, we are working with a wide range of local, national and 
international partners with an interest in salmon including the Federal 
government, the University of Alaska and other universities, partners 
from all sectors of Alaska's fishing participants, the North Pacific 
Research Board (NPRB), the NPFMC, and the North Pacific Anadromous Fish 
Commission. 2019 is being designated as the Year of the Salmon. We hope 
to capitalize on this occasion. We expect there to be many new 
opportunities to pursue answers and solutions to the questions that 
surround the state of the salmon.
    The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is the largest science 
organization in Alaska. We look forward to advancing the best science 
available to insure the long-term health and sustainability of our most 
important natural resource.

    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Commissioner. And I do want to 
emphasize again for everybody here that literally at the 
witness table right now we have the top Federal official on 
these issues in the country and the top state official. And 
they are both very well respected, and I'm very honored that 
both of them could make the time today to help us. Help us.
    And let me begin, because you both touched on it and I 
touched on it in my opening statement, but obviously, 
particularly salmon, the cooperation between the feds and the 
state is really important. And I know that you two are the top 
people, so maybe this is a difficult question, but how is that 
cooperation going, particularly as it relates to salmon? And 
are there ways that we can improve it, particularly as it 
relates to Alaska's runs?
    Mr. Oliver you kind of have a unique perspective because 
you were in the Alaska seat not too long ago.
    Mr. Oliver. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I'll 
provide an initial answer briefly. I did spend 27 years working 
here in Alaska with the North Pacific Fisheries Management 
Council, and through that got to observe firsthand how that 
cooperative relationship works. And now on the Federal side, I 
can say that I believe it's a very good working relationship. 
We have for many years largely deferred to the scientific 
expertise that exists within the state of Alaska, and I'm 
heartened today that we have those experts here at the table 
because, while I may be the top Federal official, I'm probably 
not the greatest person to ask the really nitty-gritty science 
questions, but----
    Senator Sullivan. Those are coming in a minute, so don't 
worry. We will make sure the bench gets some exercise.
    Mr. Oliver. Yes, sir. And I think, through our management 
process, that we interact with the Board of Fish, that the 
interaction with Fish and Game and our North Pacific Council, 
through our interactions with the Pacific Salmon Treaty, I 
think it was a difficult year during those negotiations, and 
some hard decisions to be made, but in the end we reached an 
agreement, and I think that is a reflection of the great 
working relationship that we have.
    Senator Sullivan. Good. Commissioner Cotten.
    Commissioner Cotten. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ever since 
Chris Oliver became the Director, Alaska has gained a lot of 
confidence in our ability to work with the United States 
Government, and it's already--there has been some fruit borne 
already. As soon as he got into office, there was additional 
money advanced to Alaska for additional observer coverage, 
which is really important to us.
    We work with the United States Government on a lot of 
different research projects that are important to both 
governments. The United States has treaty obligations, and a 
lot of the research supports that. And it also helps us 
forecasting and predicting runs of fish. So there is a large 
amount of research that takes place that benefits both the 
United States and the state of Alaska and benefits the salmon.
    Senator Sullivan. So let me ask a related question. And it 
goes to data. And again, this could be for all the members 
here, particularly the scientists, but what we are trying to do 
on the Federal side is make sure that Chris Oliver and NOAA and 
his team are fully, fully, fully funded, best science, best 
data available.
    What do you see, either of you or anyone else who wants to 
answer this, in terms of lack of data that we need to address, 
whether it's at the state or particularly at the Federal level, 
and is there anything that stands out right now that our 
scientists, whether in Alaska or at the state level. I think 
that we need to put a lot more money in to figure out what some 
of the challenges are and what some of the mysteries are? But 
is there any area where lack of data on a particular topic 
stands out that we need to really focus on? And it can be in 
state waters or, you know, the focus of this hearing is more 
Federal, but since we have state and Federal officials, I think 
it's a really important question and would welcome your frank 
response.
    Commissioner Cotten. I could begin by saying that, again, 
we do enjoy a--a good working relationship and support the 
efforts that the United States is putting forth as far as some 
research projects.
    One of the concerns has been the stability of the funding 
level. For example, the salmon research in Southeast that the 
United States conducts has some variances as far as funding, 
and the state has been paying for some of that. It has been at 
times difficult to do that. A few years back the state of 
Alaska embarked on a major project on Chinook research. Due to 
budget constraints, we have had to cut back on some of that. We 
would appreciate, I think, some extra support on that.
    Senator Sullivan. Where are we, Mr. Oliver, on specific 
Chinook research dollars at NOAA or within NMFS? I know the 
Chinook issue is not just Alaska, but I want to focus on 
Alaska.
    Mr. Oliver. Yes. Mr. Chairman, with regard to--I can't 
speak specifically to the various research. Sam mentioned the 
Southeast Alaska Pink Salmon Coastal Monitoring Program. I 
mentioned the disaster funding that's recently been allocated. 
And certainly with our overall budget limitations that we are 
operating under, I'm hopeful that the spin plan for that will 
cover some of that important research. It's a great opportunity 
to put a little long-term stability in that.
    Pacific Salmon Treaty implementation is a big, open-ended 
question. The funding for that has ranged--and that's largely 
related to the Chinook salmon agreement. Funding for that has 
ranged from 10 million to 14 million dollars over the past 5 
years. Our 2019 budget includes roughly $11 million, I think 
$11.5 million for that. And I know that based on the recent 
renegotiation of the treaty, that funding level is likely 
inadequate, certainly inadequate to support the state's 
contributions to those efforts. And so that's an area that we 
are going to be challenged on.
    I think that had those--had those negotiations been 
completed earlier but they got protracted and it's taken almost 
a year longer than expected, we may have been able to get some 
additional funding requests into the 2020 budget, but it is 
clear right now there are a number of aspects to the agreement 
that are currently unfunded that are going to be a challenge 
for all of us to get support for.
    Senator Sullivan. I know you are looking at it, but I'm 
wondering where. As you mentioned on the implementation of the 
Treaty, there are a number of us who believe that that's going 
to cost a fair amount of money, both on the implementation and 
the science and data to monitor it. Are you looking at putting 
a robust budget request as part of the implementation of the 
Pacific Salmon Treaty? You have numbers that you can hand to 
us?
    Mr. Oliver. The original numbers that I've seen that were 
compiled by the non-U.S. commissioners which we recently 
received are on the order of initially 57 million dollars, I 
believe, and a similar amount in the out years. And that--that 
I believe, of course, includes support for the various state 
programs that, as I understand, heretofore have only been 
covered roughly 15 percent by that funding, and I believe this 
agreement is looking at something closer to 80 percent. Again 
those are unfunded, and those kind of numbers were not included 
in the 2020 budget request.
    Whether and to what extent--you know how the budget process 
works, Senator. Whether in the current budget climate that we 
are operating within, whether and to what extent we as an 
agency can forward that budget request remains uncertain at 
this point.
    Senator Sullivan. Well, as the Chairman of the Committee 
that oversees that, we will be very interested. And the more 
robust the request that you think fits the need. Obviously you 
will need to coordinate closely with the state and the other 
parties to the treaty. So we will be looking forward to working 
with you on that.
    Commissioner, do you have a view on that?
    Commissioner Cotten. One other quick point. Again, I 
appreciate Congress' swift action on the disaster funds, and we 
included in the spending plan for those disaster funds some 
research that we thought was very important. But at this point, 
if you don't mind, I would like to ask our chief fisheries 
scientists to weigh in on the question of research needs, 
additional help from the United States.

        STATEMENT OF BILL TEMPLIN, M.S., CHIEF FISHERIES

          SCIENTIST, DIVISION OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES,

               ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME

    Mr. Templin. So Senator, thank you for the opportunity to 
address you today. For the record, my name is Bill Templin. I'm 
the Chief Fisheries Scientist for the commercial fisheries side 
of the department.
    Alaska's Department of Fish and Game has a long history of 
collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service, 
especially through the Ted Stevens Marine Institute. We work 
together on many, many different--a wide range of different 
types of projects, including Chinook salmon research that began 
in the 1970s in Southeast Alaska through the Little Port Walter 
Research Station, which has been an excellent place to work and 
provide the infrastructure for the research that was needed for 
a young state to develop many of its program around Chinook 
salmon and other hatcheries.
    In the marine waters of the state and near to the state, we 
collaborate on the surveys that have already been mentioned, 
the one in Southeast Alaska, the coastal monitoring survey. In 
fact, over recent years, the state has taken on more and more 
of the responsibilities of that and, in fact, for the next 
several years, we will, through the disaster funds, will be 
putting some of that money toward supporting that program.
    And then further north in the north Bering Sea, there is a 
survey that began looking at the loss of sea ice, northern sea 
ice which was, during the process of working together with our 
Federal counterparts there, we realized that we could develop a 
really good forecasting tool for Chinook salmon to the Yukon 
River, which is important for the people of the state, as well 
as for meeting treaty needs, which is a Federal/state 
responsibility on that river.
    Those programs all have gone together in a very highly 
cooperative way, which is really kind of interesting to me. 
I've seen a lot of other collaborations not go so well.
    We are--the concern that we have, though, is that as 
funding--base funding for those types of activities has 
receded, we have had to work more and more annually trying to 
find some sort of funding to keep it going one more year, one 
more year, one more year, which takes, of course, a lot of 
time, both Federal and state scientists to write proposals to 
seek funding opportunities and a lot of uncertainty about 
whether or not we are going to be able to charter a boat or 
purchase new nets year to year.
    So all the fundamentals are there in terms of 
collaboration, data sharing, a combined purpose of why we are 
out there. What really holds us back at this point in time is 
just being able to find some sort of stable funding to keep 
things going.
    Senator Sullivan. Let me ask just kind of a topic that I've 
been trying to focus on a lot. And I know it might put Mr. 
Oliver a little bit on the spot, but one of the things that I 
have been concerned about and I've raised it with Secretary of 
Commerce Ross and Admiral Gallaudet.
    You mentioned the Ted Stevens Research Center. And as you 
know, there is kind of a split where a lot of that research is 
done. Some of it is in Juneau and other places throughout the 
state. A lot of it is in Seattle. And I've had concerns that 
there has been a migration of NOAA jobs and scientists from our 
state to Seattle and other states in the Pacific Northwest, 
despite the fact that their job is to focus on our fisheries.
    I have been pressing this fairly hard, and NOAA kind of tap 
dances a little bit, have you seen that, or is that a problem? 
Would it be better to have more scientists in the state as 
opposed to studying Alaska fisheries from Seattle? You can be 
very honest with me because I'd like you to answer yes.
    Mr. Templin. Yes, sir.
    Senator Sullivan. I know Mr. Oliver might have a harder 
time, but it's a really serious question.
    Mr. Templin. It's always good to have more science and more 
information. When we are data limited, we have to be very 
conservative in the way that we manage our resources. So as far 
as your question goes, yes, it's very useful to have more--
valuable, even, to have more scientists and more resources in 
Alaska. As to how----
    Senator Sullivan. Have you seen in your experience a 
migration from, for example, Juneau down to Seattle on the 
scientists anecdotally?
    Commissioner Cotten. Mr. Chairman, can I jump into it?
    Senator Sullivan. Yes, please.
    Commissioner Cotten. I don't know that I've seen a major 
migration there. I think we have a good science center in 
Alaska.
    Senator Sullivan. We do.
    Commissioner Cotten. In fact, I remember speaking with Ted 
Stevens years ago about the whole premise that the Alaska 
Fisheries Science Center is not in Alaska, and I know that 
troubled him. And as a result of that concern, he----
    Senator Sullivan. It troubled me, as well.
    Commissioner Cotten. I think we got some established 
science activity in Alaska.
    Senator Sullivan. Yes.
    Commissioner Cotten. But it's still the Alaska Fisheries 
Science Center in Seattle.
    Senator Sullivan. Yes.
    Commissioner Cotten. And that contributes to a lot of 
people's feeling that Alaska remains in colonial status in 
regard to fisheries.
    Senator Sullivan. The Alaska Marine Debris Office Program 
of NOAA also resides outside of Alaska, because I've said to 
some of my Senate colleagues, you would never put the study for 
the center on the Grand Canyon in Illinois. You would put it in 
Arizona. So it's an issue. It's actually a serious issue that I 
think some of the Federal agencies need to take more seriously.
    Commissioner Cotten. Thank you for recognizing that.
    Senator Sullivan. After that wind-up, Mr. Oliver, would you 
care to comment?
    Mr. Oliver. Thank you, Senator. I know this is an issue we 
have talked about before. And I know we did some research over 
the past several months on that. And we responded, you know, in 
terms of staffing. NOAA employs about 535 employees in the 
state of Alaska to carry out missions and work of all of NOAA's 
line and staff offices. And we did some number crunching and, 
notwithstanding the fundamental disconnect to the point that 
the Alaska Fisheries Science Center is in Seattle, that 
analysis shows that NOAA staff focused on Alaska issues have 
not relocated or moved outside of Alaska at an accelerated rate 
relative to the opposite of----
    Senator Sullivan. But you do have a lot of openings in 
Alaska, is that correct?
    Mr. Oliver. We are working hard to fill more than 100 
vacancies in the state of Alaska, many of those within 
fisheries. Currently we have about 230 employees that are 
located in Seattle that work primarily on Alaska issues, but we 
also have over 200 in Alaska that work on Alaska issues. And 
some of our key leadership positions are and will continue to 
be in Alaska.
    Senator Sullivan. Well, we want to help you certainly fill 
the vacancies, right, because I think that's really critical, 
and that's where Admiral Gallaudet and I did come to some 
agreement that the vacancies are really important. I think the 
state would agree with that, wouldn't you, Commissioner, 
filling those NOAA vacancies that currently exist for positions 
in Alaska?
    Commissioner Cotten. I'm not sure.
    Mr. Oliver. We are working toward that, Senator.
    Senator Sullivan. You know, we have been talking about 
data, but I also want to talk about broader management tools 
that are available both on the Federal and state side. We have 
been talking about data gaps, but are there tools that you 
think are also lacking that make your ability on either side, 
state or Federal, to more sustainably and actively manage our 
fisheries in a way that, you know, we all want in terms of, you 
know, abundance in terms of harvest, but also sustainability in 
terms of future generations?
    Commissioner Cotten. Mr. Chairman, again, I'll probably ask 
our expert panel here to help me on this, but generally we have 
sound fundamental tools within the Department of Fish and Game 
right now. The Board of Fisheries examines each fishery in 
Alaska on a three-year cycle. So every three years if there is 
new information, that gets considered. Opportunities to change 
management structures are regularly available.
    In addition, the board delegates and statutes allow the 
department to make in-season management decisions based on 
unexpected events or new information. So we begin with a pretty 
solid fundamental flexible and well-designed system that allows 
us to manage, especially under changing and unexpected 
circumstances.
    I think we can step back to the whole question of 
collaboration with the U.S. and additional data management that 
will help us on that. And I'd ask if either Bill or any of the 
directors might want to contribute to the question of 
additional management tools that we should have.

STATEMENT OF JAMES HASBROUCK, Ph.D., CHIEF FISHERIES SCIENTIST, 
   DIVISION OF SPORT FISH, ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME

    Dr. Hasbrouck. Yes. For the record, I'm Jim Hasbrouck. I'm 
the Chief Fisheries Scientist for the Division of Sport Fish. 
And like my counterparts here, I thank you, Senator Sullivan, 
for your invitation and spending this time with us today.
    There is a lot of variation in salmon runs that we are 
seeing. We--as the Commissioner has mentioned, we do have the 
flexibility within the state to manage those fisheries, but 
there is a lot of uncertainty that's going on, and even more so 
with the variation in salmon runs that we are seeing.
    And I think one thing that is very helpful in the 
collaboration that goes on between the State and the Federal 
Government is the kinds of data and research that we tend to 
collect in the state are looking at harvesting fish. So we 
primarily focus our research and stock assessment efforts on 
adults: What's being harvested, what's the escapement?
    What the Federal Government can largely bring and has been 
bringing to the table, you have heard some of that already in 
that they have expertise and capacity for looking at juveniles 
and what's going on in the marine environment. And with those 
two things combined together, we can start to get a much better 
idea on factors that are affecting salmon production in the 
state of Alaska.
    It is a very collaborative effort. It is a very positive 
effort between the Federal and the state government, not only 
with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA, but also 
with the Council itself. And my understanding is that the North 
Pacific Fisheries Management Council is one of the top councils 
in the state. I think that's largely a function of the members 
of the Council itself, but it's also a function of Mr. Oliver's 
leadership while he was the Executive Director. And the people 
that are on the Council, people that are on the Board of Fish, 
people that are in the agencies are very much interested in 
salmon resources, fisheries resources in general, but today we 
are talking specifically about salmon resources, concerns for 
those resources, and wanting to put the best available science 
toward managing those fisheries.
    Senator Sullivan. So tools, right now you think you have 
adequate management tools? Again, and this is state and 
Federal.
    Dr. Hasbrouck. I think that the tools that we have are very 
good. I think that the more information we can bring to the 
table in managing fisheries for things like better 
understanding productivity, better understanding run timing of 
adults, are there factors in the ocean environment that may be 
impacting production and affecting things like run timing, 
which with those kinds of information, reduces the uncertainty 
which then improves management.
    Mr. Oliver. Just a comment. Senator Sullivan, from the 
Federal side I can't really comment on the tools relative to 
the direct management of salmon fisheries as they have since 
about 1959 been outstandingly managed by the state, and we 
don't have a real Federal role, except in that areas, for 
example, that deal with the bycatch of salmon in the groundfish 
fisheries. We do manage the groundfish fisheries. And I 
mentioned earlier programs that we have put in place since, I 
believe, 2010.
    We have a system of management in our--for example, our 
Bering Sea pollock fisheries that provides that fleet a 
tremendous amount of flexibility in how they operate, when they 
fish, where, ability to avoid salmon hotspots, but also that 
system allows us to put a tremendous amount of onus on the 
industry to do just that, to avoid that. We put caps on them. 
We put a staggered cap that provides a performance standard 
that incentivizes their ability to avoid salmon. And those kind 
of management tools are very important for managing that side 
of the equation.
    Senator Sullivan. Let me ask Mr. Oliver kind of a question 
that integrates the data challenges and the management 
challenges. Particularly given your background where you are 
now and what job you had previously, can you walk us through an 
example of how data or research collected at the Federal level 
so, say, one of the Alaska fisheries science centers, the 
Seattle or Juneau base, the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab, 
or even something from outside the government, say, from a 
university is synthesized and applied through the Council 
process to affect the fisheries management decision? How does 
that work so people understand that, and maybe on the state 
side, as well?
    And that's the kind of key. You take the data, you analyze 
the data, you get the data. Hopefully, there are no gaps in the 
data. Then you use that to actually use the tools available 
that you have to make decisions that impact all of us. So how 
does that work? Can you walk us through an example of that?
    Mr. Oliver. I may not be able to walk you through a 
specific example, Senator. Actually, one of the people at this 
table to my left with Fish and Game may be in actually a better 
position because they are the ones that are actually using 
whatever information it is that we glean that then crosswalks 
into the management system at the state level.
    I can tell you--this gets a little bit to one of your data 
gap questions. A lot of the information that's relevant to 
management comes through our comprehensive groundfish observer 
program. We collect a lot of genetic information now throughout 
the year on a wide range of fisheries that tell us where the 
salmon that are being caught come from in terms of their rivers 
of origin. And that provides information that not only informs 
the Council on its bycatch management decisions, but I believe 
it also is greatly informative to the scientists and the 
managers at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game level in 
terms of how that information feeds into their NCs and their 
in-river management decisions.
    And again, I don't have my team of experts that could 
probably answer that question better for you, but I suspect 
some of the folks to my left might be able to give you a better 
idea of specific information that is collected at the Federal 
level and how that's used in state management.
    I'm using the microphone by habit. I don't know if it's 
actually working.
    Senator Sullivan. I don't think they are working.
    Commissioner Cotten. I think Mr. Oliver hit on one of the 
key elements of data that's collected through the United States 
that the state really depends on, and that's the genetic 
samples taken from the Chinook salmon, typically in the pollock 
fisheries, but other groundfish fisheries. For example, in the 
Bering Sea, the vast majority of the Chinook salmon taken as 
bycatch are Alaska-bound fish. Western Alaska rivers are the 
home of most of those fish, at least the majority. As a result, 
we pay very close attention to those numbers. We are strong 
advocates for reduced--in fact, just this year we have reduced 
the bycatch levels that are allowed in the Bering Sea based on 
low abundance.
    Contrast that with the Gulf of Alaska where we see the 
genetic work that displays the fact that probably 80 percent 
plus of the Chinook salmon that are taken as bycatch in the 
Gulf of Alaska are not Alaska origin. They are important to 
somebody, but they aren't necessarily affecting productivity in 
Alaska.
    Senator Sullivan. Do you know that when you see the genetic 
makeup of the salmon?
    Commissioner Cotten. Yes. We are able to identify Pacific 
Northwest. There are some from Southeast Alaska hatcheries, a 
small percentage from Alaska streams and the Gulf of Alaska, 
but the bulk of it, the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and 
Southeast Alaska hatcheries.
    Senator Sullivan. Any thoughts from the scientists on that 
question? Commissioner, not that you are a scientist or 
anything.
    Commissioner Cotten. You got it right, though.
    Mr. Templin. So Senator Sullivan, this is Bill Templin 
again. You had asked for a specific example of how information 
that's collected can be used to--can flow through the pipeline 
and make it to actually making management good decisions. I'd 
invite people to consider what we did this last summer in 
Southeast Alaska with unprecedented restrictions on Chinook 
salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska because we knew that the 
runs to Southeast Alaska streams would be lower than--in some 
cases historically low, lower than--especially lower than our 
escapement goals, especially if we allowed fishing as usual.
    And that information actually came from a variety of 
sources, but one of the sources was the Southeast Alaska 
Coastal Monitoring Program where we noted a couple years ago 
that there was a curious lack of Chinook salmon juveniles in 
the harvest in our sampling. And that gave us a signal that we 
could then use to both manage Alaska's fisheries, but also 
collaborate with our Canadian counterparts in order to meet 
treaty needs along the northern border of Canada with Alaska.
    So that was an excellent example of how information flowed 
from a lot of different places, including a very valuable 
survey in Southeast Alaska to a couple years later, actually, 
making management decisions.
    Senator Sullivan. So you mentioned on the state side the 
genetic material data from the feds is one of the key data 
points. Does the state see that you are getting enough of that, 
an adequate amount and timely?
    Mr. Templin. Senator Sullivan, again, before I had this 
job, I was our department's principle geneticist, and actually 
worked as we began to develop many of these programs, including 
the one that's currently used for looking at bycatch in the 
Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. That was--that capability was 
developed through a lot of collaborations across the state of 
Alaska. A lot of different funding sources came together to 
produce the genetic baseline that could then be used to look at 
the genetic stock composition of the bycatch. And it's, again, 
a good example of collaboration.
    Senator Sullivan. But do you think you are getting a full 
amount? Do you need more of that? If it's key, which you have 
all said it is, does the Federal Government's cooperation and 
availability of that information come to the state in 
quantities and quality that you think is adequate, or could it 
be improved?
    Mr. Templin. So there could be more--more funding to 
develop the underlying information that's necessary for 
managing the five main North American species of Pacific 
salmon.
    Alaska sits square in the middle of--it's in the heart of 
the salmon world. You know, we have got salmon to the west of 
us and salmon to the east of us, but we are smack dab in the 
middle right at the top of the north Pacific and occupying the 
east coast of the Bering Sea where most salmon go to grow. We 
are encountering fish from everywhere from Korea to--to 
potentially sometimes California.
    There are five species. We have--we have--in order to 
answer questions like what's in the bycatch or what's in our 
coastal fisheries, we have had to put together information 
through the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission 
collaborating with other countries. We have been able to do 
that for chum salmon, for Chinook salmon, and mostly for 
sockeye salmon. What's missing is coho salmon and pink salmon, 
which are becoming a fairly important species also 
economically.
    So yes, there could be more resources put together to fund 
that underlying information from which applications could then 
be built.
    Senator Sullivan. OK. Let me ask kind of the question that 
I think most people are interested in and why I would imagine a 
lot of people are attending this hearing and, to be frank, one 
of the reasons that I wanted to hold this here in Alaska and 
have heard from so many of our fellow Alaskans on this topic. 
But, you know, it's kind of a broad-based question, but I 
appreciate you guys looking to dive into it.
    I mentioned in my opening statement some of the historical 
kind of ups and downs in terms of returns on the salmon really 
since statehood, but even if you look way back even 100 years, 
you talk to the people, the Alaska Native people who we are 
celebrating and honoring and really thankful that we're here at 
AFN. But you talk to some of them, and there are stories, even 
lore of 100 years, 150 years ago massive crashes on some of the 
major rivers that caused starvation.
    So right now we have had these ups and downs historically. 
We are seeing really historically strong sockeye runs in parts 
of the state, you know, Bristol Bay being a really important 
area. And then we are seeing weak Chinook runs pretty much 
everywhere, although my understanding is there are a few rivers 
that have had strong runs. Why do you think that's happening? 
And I'll just open that up. I know it's a hard question. Pretty 
simple question, but really hard. But I think it's the question 
that's on literally thousands of Alaskans' minds.
    And I think you guys are the best scientists and observers 
of this. You know, is there something we can do to start to 
address that, try to address that?
    Yes, sir.
    Commissioner Cotten. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll start, 
but I will quickly defer to the science crew here. But I think 
most people are aware that the two systems, the Gulf of Alaska 
and the Bering Sea, have performed quite differently in the 
past few years, as we have already discussed. Bristol Bay and 
Norton Sound this year was a tremendous run that hadn't been 
seen at those levels before. So it--and then the Gulf of Alaska 
quite the opposite, poor runs.
    And so we feel that the freshwater environment and Alaska's 
habitat, salmon rearing areas are in good shape, so we don't 
believe it's--that's the root of the problem. When you ask 
scientists to explain why that happens, it usually ends up with 
a phrase ``ocean conditions.''
    So that's where I'm going to start to defer here, but we 
have certainly seen that with, as everybody is aware, some of 
the climatic changes, warm water, which produces a lot of other 
problems for not only the salmon, but the food that they need. 
So ocean conditions is the phrase that's often used. And so I 
would again ask for some supplemental contributions.
    Senator Sullivan. Putting it in historical perspective, was 
it ocean conditions in the 1960s and 1970s where the runs were 
weak? Was it ocean conditions in 1959, as we talked about, 
where the, you know, total runs for all salmon in Alaska was 
very paltry? I mean, is that something that kind of just, like, 
ebbs and flows? Is it ocean conditions that caused the Yukon to 
crash 150 years ago? I'm not 100 percent accurate, but there 
has been horrible runs in the history, if you research it, in 
our state where they have not always been strong. I know I'm 
asking a really hard question.
    Commissioner Cotten. I'll take one more stab at it. I think 
Chris wants to jump in, too. But it's clear that back in the 
1960s when the United States was managing it, there were a lot 
of complaints about how it was managed, how careful, how 
precautionary the approach was. So that's changed.
    That doesn't mean to suggest that there couldn't have been 
ocean conditions as a contributor back then, as well. But I 
know that the Japanese and other fleets got very good at 
figuring out where our salmon were once they got out beyond 12 
miles. So that was a contributor that's no longer there, but 
that doesn't, again, preclude the potential that ocean 
conditions played a role there. So if you get back 150 years 
when there wasn't escapement goal management, that's possibly--
I mean, the reason you manage that way is to try to assure the 
greatest level of productivity. So that's changed, as well.
    But I would at this point ask the science crew to weigh in 
on other elements of ocean conditions.
    Mr. Oliver. I hesitate to make this general comment, but I 
will, recognizing that this is just sort of a personal 
observation, not any position of the U.S. Government. But when 
you look at all the science advances we have had over 100 years 
in our science, in our technologies and the amount of 
information that we have on ocean conditions, salmon biology 
and other things, notwithstanding all of that information, you 
know, there are some things, particularly if you go back far 
enough in time, I firmly believe there are some aspects of 
Mother Nature that we will never fully understand.
    And having said that, I'm hopeful that the scientists to my 
left can give a better answer than that.
    Senator Sullivan. Mr. Oliver teed you up really nicely.
    Dr. Hasbrouck. Well, this is Jim Hasbrouck again. I don't 
know that we have any definitive answers. I guess natural 
variation is something that we deal with with salmon. That's--
that's just life. And sometimes there are catastrophic failures 
in salmon runs. I don't know that what we saw in the 1950s that 
caused the creation of Alaska as a state or in the 1960s and 
mid 1970s where ocean conditions could have played a part.
    I think that there is--the underlying idea is that there 
was probably too much harvest that was going on. That doesn't 
seem to be the case now, but what's going on in the ocean that 
is causing these changes we don't really know for sure. We have 
a world class Chinook salmon assessment program in Southeast 
Alaska that fairly clearly shows that what went on at least 
with those four indicator stocks in Southeast Alaska was marine 
environment. We didn't see a change in freshwater production 
for those four Chinook salmon stocks, but we saw a dramatic 
decline in marine survival. We've also seen some----
    Senator Sullivan. Can you unpack that? What does that mean, 
``dramatic decline in marine survival''? Is that predation? 
What is that?
    Dr. Hasbrouck. That's ocean conditions that we don't fully 
understand what is really going on. When these juveniles go out 
to the ocean, are they not finding enough food? Is there 
predation that's going on that hasn't happened in the past, at 
least to the degree--we have heard in meetings about increased 
abundance of killer whales and other marine mammals that feed 
and prefer to feed on salmon, especially Chinook salmon.
    So there are a variety of things that are going on out 
there, and trying to tease them apart--and it's probably some 
kind of combination of factors. So to try to say, oh, it must 
be the blob, oh, it must be this, it must be that, that's 
extremely difficult to do because all of these things are 
interacting with each other. And trying to separate out those 
cause and effect is an extremely difficult thing to do.
    Senator Sullivan. So what about the flip side? Why do we 
think the sockeye salmon runs in certain parts of the state 
have been so historically strong?
    Mr. Templin. What we can, Senator--again, this is Bill 
Templin, for the record. We can start by looking at what it 
probably isn't. Right? So it's probably not habitat. Alaska's 
habitat is largely intact. It's probably not fishing pressure 
because we fish in a very conservative manner with the intent 
to have sustained yield.
    It probably is--it could be associated with their 
freshwater life history, especially for those with longer 
period of time in freshwater, but those don't seem to be 
driving it as much as the common factor of ocean conditions. 
Why does the Gulf--why did the Gulf have some poor, really poor 
runs this year while the Bristol Bay had really good runs?
    We would point to ocean conditions, but also which ocean 
that they were in. They were--the ones in the bay and the ones 
in Norton Sound and on the Yukon were probably in the Bering 
Sea, whereas the fish in the Gulf probably spent most of their 
time in the Gulf of Alaska. So one was a good place to be a 
young fish, and one was a bad place to be a young fish.
    That's the--again trying to tease out why within that very 
complex system is very difficult.
    Senator Sullivan. I know we are going to get to the next 
panel, and you guys have been very patient, and I really 
appreciate everybody coming on a Saturday. And I think most 
people can see this is a very, very, very smart group of state 
and Federal officials who care a lot about this topic.
    So strong runs somewhere, but weak king runs pretty much 
all over the state, which concerns everybody. And then all 
these theories on ocean conditions: Bycatch, the blob, ocean 
acidification, offshore production. It wasn't kings, but I 
think the Coast Guard caught the Chinese vessel here recently 
with 80 million tons of illegally harvested salmon. But I mean, 
that's not good for any fishery. Predation.
    Are there theories from the scientists that you think are 
more likely than others? And I think the key question for me is 
we don't really know and everybody is trying to figure it out. 
What more can we be doing, and this really goes to Mr. Oliver 
because it's in the Federal waters, what more can we be doing 
to actually figure this out, recognizing, as you said, Mr. 
Oliver, that, you know, Mother Nature and the oceans are 
complex systems?
    But for the scientists, do you have a theory that you and 
your decades of experience believe is more probable than other 
theories, or do you really think it's kind of a combo, or we 
just don't know? And then if we don't know, what can we do to 
know more?
    Mr. Oliver. If I might just give a general answer. I 
mentioned earlier in my testimony that during the offshore 
surveys that we do, they collect a variety of ecosystem 
information, not just sea surface temperature, but temperature 
throughout the water column, phytoplankton production, 
zooplankton production, forage fish and basically juvenile fish 
conditions. Some of these species feed primarily on zooplankton 
when they are at sea while others feed on forage fish.
    And those presence or magnitude of those vary across--
whether it's different in the Gulf or different in the Bering 
Sea. And that may explain--and now--so that's when I say 
different ocean conditions. And clearly ocean conditions are 
not ideal for some of these species that we are not seeing 
return in the numbers that they used to. And that doesn't--that 
may explain why you had a good Bristol Bay run for sockeye and 
a poor Western Alaska run for Chinook, but it doesn't 
necessarily explain the overall Chinook reduction everywhere.
    I do know that we, working with Fish and Game through our 
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, are trying to model these 
ecosystem indicators specifically testing the inclusion of 
those indicators with different forecast models for two 
specific fisheries--Southeast Alaska pink and Yukon River 
Chinook--to determine if we can make correlations between 
those--at least those kind of ocean conditions and the 
magnitude of the runs over time.
    So there are--these are relatively new modeling efforts. 
And so those are the kind of things that we need to do more of 
to see if we can get a better answer to what's up with Mother 
Nature.
    Senator Sullivan. We will work with you if you need more 
resources or authorities to get to the bottom of the question. 
Can I ask just the state of Alaska officials on--again, I know 
it's not necessarily in your realm given that it's out in the 
ocean, but you are all scientists and have been looking at it. 
Is there a theory or, you know, one of these concerns that you 
think is more likely than not to be playing a role, 
particularly as it relates to the negative king returns?
    Commissioner Cotten. Let me just say that the--it's not 
salmon, but two years ago we discovered that there was an 80 
percent decline in Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska, and we 
learned that as a result of survey work by the United States 
Government that we appreciate and cooperate with. And that was, 
I think, a consensus--maybe not a proven fact, but a 
consensus--that there was a warm water event that affected 
those codfish. Warm water has less oxygen. It creates a very 
difficult environment.
    A lot of the red salmon that were leaving freshwater, the 
ones that were supposed to have returned in 2018, faced that 
warm water event, as well. So that may not be what the 
scientists would say is the conclusion, but it's a leading 
candidate for the reason why.
    Senator Sullivan. OK. Good. Other views on that? I know 
it's a hard question, but I think it's why a lot of people are 
here.
    Mr. Templin. Again, Senator Sullivan, this is Bill Templin 
again. We have--again, in collaboration with our Federal 
counterparts, have been able to conduct some research which is 
zeroing in, not necessarily why particularly, but when some of 
the mortality happens, some of the factors which lead to either 
a strong or a weak run. And for most species, it appears to be 
in their early life history in the ocean.
    Senator Sullivan. Is that new?
    Mr. Templin. That's not necessarily new. The idea has been 
around for a while, but we're now gaining the information that 
allows us to say more definitively that, yes, it is in the 
early life. In their early experience in the ocean, that's when 
they--it's kind of a make or break for that--for that run for 
that brood year of fish when they arrive in the ocean.
    So we are gaining the information that's allowing us to 
focus in on certain periods of time in the life history of a 
salmon. Tying that, then, mortality event to a specific factor 
is much, much more difficult, but I believe that we are--if we 
can continue to do the research both in the Gulf and in the 
Bering Sea, that we will be able to kind of figure out what 
factors are affecting it.
    There is a very strong relationship between this warm water 
event and negative effects on runs. So it's potentially the--
could be the explanation for the 2016 collapse of pink salmon. 
Those pink salmon would have been juveniles entering the Gulf 
at the same time.
    I also want to point out that there is a whole 'nother 
ocean that's opening up right now that we really don't have a 
lot of experience on, but the salmon are beginning to occupy 
that environment. And for us to be precautionary, thinking 
ahead and properly thinking about sustainability, we should be 
looking at gaining more information about the Arctic Ocean, as 
well.
    Dr. Hasbrouck. Jim Hasbrouck. Kind of a final thought on 
this question, at least for me, is that we collect the data and 
do some modeling, as Mr. Oliver talked about, especially 
looking at more of an ecosystem approach so we can collect the 
data and we can develop models. He's right. You can look at 
correlation, but correlation doesn't explain cause and effect.
    So one of the beauties is that by collecting this data and 
developing models, we get more informed. That allows us to 
develop some hypotheses. We can then go out and test those 
hypotheses. I know this sounds pretty geeky, but I'm a 
scientist, so bear with me. It's that collecting of that data 
to do some modeling to develop some kind of hypotheses that you 
can then go out and test which helps us improve our ability to 
look at cause and effect.
    Senator Sullivan. Well, listen. I want to thank the 
witnesses. I do think that this panel demonstrates that we 
don't have all the answers, but I do think it's reassuring to 
see we have some of the smartest people in the state and in the 
country working on this. We are all concerned about it, and we 
need to know what more we can do at the Federal level, in 
particular, to help you, but I really appreciate, Commissioner, 
you and your team and Mr. Oliver traveling several thousand 
miles to come up for this hearing. It means a lot.
    So we are going to switch out to our next panel and fix our 
audio system, but I think everybody should give a round of 
applause.
    [Applause.]
    [A break was taken.]
    Senator Sullivan. OK. We are going to get started with our 
second panel. And one thing I do want to mention, should have 
mentioned at the top, so if we have lost some participants in 
the audience, what we are going to do in my office, we will set 
up a website that will be up and running by Monday. The way 
these Senate hearings work is that the record stays open for 
two weeks that you can provide additional questions to the 
record for the witnesses, including the last witnesses. I 
forgot to mention to them, but their work might not be over.
    And so what we would like to be able to do, we will put on 
my web page, my Senate web page, website, we will put a page 
there that if any of you have questions that you wanted to be 
asked, submit them to us on the web page, and then we will 
submit them for the record for the hearing. So that way people 
who came and, you know, might be a little disappointed that 
they couldn't ask questions from the audience, the way these 
Senate hearings work is you do it through the Committee 
members. So we will make that happen.
    So I know a couple of individuals came up, actually had 
some really good questions that I might even ask this panel. 
Really good ones. But if you want, we will be able to get more 
questions to these panelists and the previous panel that we had 
before.
    So we will begin the second panel. And the whole goal here 
was not only to get the government officials, but some of our 
top scientists and others who have been focused on these issues 
for, again, years and years and years.
    So I'd like to welcome our second panel of witnesses. Milo 
Adkison, who is a Ph.D. and Professor and Chair of the 
Department of Fisheries, the College of Fisheries and Ocean 
Sciences at the University of Fairbanks; Matt Baker, who is 
also a Ph.D. and Science Director of the North Pacific Research 
Board; Karen Gillis, who is the Executive Director of the 
Bering Sea Fishermen's Association; Katrina Hoffman, who is the 
President and CEO of the Prince William Sound Science Officer; 
and Mary Sattler Peltola, the Executive Director of the 
Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
    Each of you have will have 5 minutes to deliver an open 
oral statement, and a longer written statement will be included 
in the record for each of you. And if you saw the first panel, 
I'm likely to ask you very similar questions. So why don't we 
begin with Mr. Adkison.

             STATEMENT OF DR. MILO ADKISON, Ph.D.,
          PROFESSOR AND CHAIR DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,
            COLLEGE OF FISHERIES AND OCEAN SCIENCES,
                 UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS

    Dr. Adkison. All right. My name is Milo Adkison. Good 
morning, Senator Sullivan. Thanks for the opportunity to 
testify on behalf of my colleagues at the University. As you 
noted, I'm Professor and Chair of the Department of Fisheries 
at UAF. And I would also note, since we are at AFN, I'm a 
member of the Curyung Tribe of Dillingham.
    I want to start off by talking about the state of salmon. 
Actually, I think you have covered a lot of it in the 
beginning. Large fluctuations in salmon abundance are normal. 
They have been going on for thousands of years. We are 
currently on a 40-year run of really strong returns to Alaska, 
but there are some exceptions. In Western Alaska we have had a 
couple of decades of poor runs. The statewide decline of 
Chinook is more recent, and then the blob seems to have been 
responsible for some even more recent problems.
    The University is always very involved in looking at the 
causes of these salmon declines. I just saw a paper by some 
university colleagues and some other researchers that concluded 
that the blob probably wouldn't have happened if there hadn't 
been some contribution from human-caused global warming.
    With Chinook salmon--the earlier panel talked about this a 
bit--we have identified growth in freshwater and the first year 
at sea is critical periods for determining survival. Second-
year growth in the ocean seems to be influential in whether 
Chinook salmon come back early, and if they come back early, 
they're going to be small. And one of our researchers found 
evidence of significant oceanic predation by salmon sharks.
    We are looking at the vulnerability of different salmon 
populations to the spread of invasive species like Elodea and 
pike in Southcentral Alaska. Hatchery interactions with wild 
stocks are a big concern. I was just at a meeting Tuesday. 
Board of Fish was dealing with it. Our faculty have been pretty 
involved with looking at the potential loss of fitness when you 
have got different disparate stocks interbreeding and the 
amount of implications of hatchery straying. I think further 
research on hatchery straying is something that would be very 
valuable.
    I'm going to assert that habitat is the key to maintaining 
salmon stocks in Alaska. In the other parts of the world, 
salmon populations have been lost or drastically reduced. It's 
mainly been because of degradation of habitat. This is big 
things like dams, but it's also the nickel and dime stuff, like 
water diversions and urbanization and things like that. And I 
think our salmon stocks will be resilient, too, if Fish and 
Game messes up and overfishes for we have these environmental 
phenomenon like the blob. If our habitat is intact, our salmon 
will bounce back.
    So I think further research is needed to identify critical 
habitats and to prioritize conservation and restoration 
efforts.
    I'll also point out that warming and ocean acidification 
also cause habitat degradation and disrupt prey resources for 
our salmon. So additional studies on these phenomenon would be 
really useful. And arresting warming and acidification is a 
high priority for maintaining viable salmon populations in 
Alaska.
    Finally, the other thing I want to talk about is our 
communities. Rural residents and our indigenous people are 
losing access to our salmon resources. Fishing permits are 
migrating away from our rural communities. And the remaining 
permit holders are getting older because younger people are 
having trouble getting access to capital that they need to get 
permits and fishing gear and boats.
    And so studies of financial mechanisms to support new 
entrants or changes to management that make it less expensive 
to enter into fisheries would be very useful.
    The University supports salmon and salmon-dependent 
communities in a whole bunch of ways. We have got undergraduate 
and technical programs. We train the managers and scientists. 
Your first panel had several of our alumni, I noticed. And it's 
not just our fisheries department. It's everybody from the 
oceanographers to the social scientists. I'd like to highlight 
our Marine Advisory Program agents. They are out in the 
communities. They provide technical expertise directly to the 
processors and the fishermen. And then we partner with 
organizations throughout the state, including, I think, every 
organization that's been on these two panels.
    I'll just conclude by saying that large fluctuations in 
salmon abundance are natural. They do cause a lot of pain. 
These disaster mitigation funds are very helpful and necessary, 
but I'm less worried about that these ups and downs than I am 
long-term trends.
    What's going to kill our salmon stocks are erosion of 
habitat. What's going to kill our communities is erosion of 
access to our salmon resources. So I would like to see some 
resources put into addressing these longer-term issues.
    And I think I'll conclude there. And thank you for the 
opportunity to testify.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Adkison follows:]

Prepared Statement of Dr. Milo Adkison, Professor and Chair, Department 
 of Fisheries, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of 
                            Alaska Fairbanks
Introduction
    Good morning Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the 
Committee. I am honored to testify today. My name is Milo Adkison. I am 
Professor and Chair of the Department of Fisheries in the College of 
Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As 
we are at the AFN convention, I will also note that I am a member of 
the Curyung Tribe of Dillingham.
The state of salmon and some relevant research
    Lake sediment cores show us that large fluctuations in salmon 
abundance have occurred for thousands of years. Alaska is currently on 
a 40-year run of very strong salmon production, with some exceptions. 
These include poor production of several salmon species in Western 
Alaska for the last two decades, a recent state-wide decline in Chinook 
stocks, and some recent poor production possibly associated with an 
oceanic phenomenon known as ``the Blob'' which disrupted food webs in 
the North Pacific. A team of scientists from the University of Alaska 
and other institutions has recently shown that the ``Blob'' cannot be 
explained without human-caused global warming.
    The University is heavily involved in studying the causes of salmon 
fluctuations and poor production in some areas. On Chinook declines, we 
have identified growth in freshwater and the first year at sea as 
critical periods for determining survival, found that second-year ocean 
growth affects whether they choose to spawn early and thus at a smaller 
size, and discovered evidence of significant oceanic predation by 
salmon sharks. Invasive species such as Elodea and pike in southcentral 
Alaska are also affecting salmon, and we're assessing the vulnerability 
of different populations to their spread. Hatchery interactions with 
wild stocks are a current concern; our faculty have been leaders in 
addressing the potential loss of fitness when disparate stocks 
interbreed, in showing that hatchery strays can sometimes be a large 
component of the wild population, but that they may not always be 
effective in spawning. Further research on hatchery straying would be 
useful in advancing the state of knowledge.
Habitat is the key to maintaining Alaska's salmon
    In the Pacific Northwest, and prior to that on the East Coast and 
in Europe, salmon populations have been lost or drastically reduced. 
The main driver of decline and the lack of recovery has been man-made 
habitat degradation. These alterations include big changes like dams, 
but also cumulative small impacts like road runoff, water diversion, 
stream channelization, urbanization, etc.
    Alaska's salmon will be resistant to accidental overfishing and 
unusual environmental phenomena like ``the Blob'' if we maintain our 
watersheds. Further research is needed to identify critical habitat and 
prioritize conservation and restoration efforts.
    Warming and ocean acidification also contribute to habitat 
degradation. Warming degrades habitat and facilitates the spread of 
noxious invasive species. Acidification affects the vitality of 
important salmon prey resources, and can disrupt the marine ecosystem. 
Additional studies are needed to improve understanding and to mitigate 
these impacts. Arresting the warming and acidification is a high 
priority for maintaining healthy salmon stocks.
Access to the fisheries is the key to maintaining salmon-dependent 
        communities
    Rural residents and indigenous people are losing access to our 
salmon resources. Fishing permits are migrating away from rural 
communities. The remaining permit holders are getting older, as the 
younger generation finds it increasingly difficult to gain entry to 
fisheries. Research has shown that rural residents have less access to 
the capital necessary to buy the permits, vessels, and gear they need 
to go fishing. Studies of financial mechanisms to support new entrants 
or of changes in management that would reduce the amount of capital 
necessary for entry are warranted. A high school student in rural 
Alaska should have a realistic path to entering the fisheries that 
supported their parents and grandparents.
    Rural residents also have more difficulty participating in the 
fisheries management processes such as the Board of Fish or the North 
Pacific Fishery Management Council. Our studies show this is due both 
to the logistics and expense of participation, and to bureaucratic 
barriers to meaningful participation. The university and other groups 
have undertaken efforts to reduce these barriers.
The University of Alaska supports salmon and salmon-dependent 
        communities
    At the University, we have robust undergraduate and technical 
programs in Fisheries. Our graduate program produces our managers and 
scientists; I recently counted over 100 graduates that have gone to the 
Alaska Department of Fish and Game and over 80 to Federal agencies. 
These students undertake much of our research as an integral part of 
their education.
    Our salmon and salmon community research involves much more than 
our fisheries program. Our oceanographers and marine biologists are 
studying changes in the salmon's ecosystems as the ocean warms and 
acidifies, and our economists and social scientists are studying 
markets and community well-being.
    Our Marine Advisory Program agents in the College of Fisheries and 
Ocean Sciences who live in the fishing communities provide training and 
technical expertise for processors, fishermen, and young aspiring 
fishermen. The annual Young Fishermen's Summit is one good example. The 
University of Alaska is a resource to and collaborator with salmon 
stakeholders throughout the state, which I think includes all of the 
organizations on today's panels.
Summary statement
    Large fluctuations in salmon abundance are natural, inevitable, and 
painful to salmon-dependent communities. We can help the stakeholders 
when this happens, and maybe change our management so that they are 
more resilient. Hopefully we'll get better at predicting these ups and 
downs.
    But, it's not the ups and downs that I worry about--it's the long-
term trends. The slow erosion of habitat is what has caused salmon loss 
in other parts of the world. Other worrisome trends are the spread of 
invasive species, global warming, and ocean acidification. There are 
troubling social trends as well. The erosion of our fishing 
communities' access to the salmon resources has profound effects on the 
viability of these communities.
    I would like to see resources dedicated to tackling long-term 
concerns, to maintaining the viability and resiliency of our salmon and 
salmon-dependent communities. The University of Alaska already serves 
as the institution that brings together different stakeholder groups 
around science-based approaches for the best stewardship of Alaska 
salmon. We look forward to continuing in this role to ensure that 
salmon remain a central part of Alaskan life for generations to come.
Further Information:
History of the loss of salmon populations:

Montgomery, D.R. 2009. ``King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of 
Salmon'' Basic Books

Lichatowich, J. 1999. Salmon without rivers: a history of the Pacific 
salmon crisis. Island Press
Pre-historic fluctuations:

Finney, B. P., I. Gregory-Eaves, J. Sweetman, M. S. V. Douglas, and J. 
P. Smol. 2000. Impacts of climate change and fishing on Pacific salmon 
abundance over the past 300 years. Science 290:795-799.

Finney, B. P., I. Gregory-Eaves, M. S. V. Douglas, and J. P. Smol. 
2002. Fisheries productivity in the northeastern Pacific Ocean over the 
past 2,200 years. Nature 416:729-733.
Ocean Acidification:

https://www.uaf.edu/cfos/research/major-research-programs/oarc/
The ``Blob'':

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6230/17 

https://alaskapacificblob.wordpress.com/

https://www.iflscience.com/environment/what-warm-blob-pacific-and-what-
can-it-tell-us-about-our-future-climate/

Walsh, J.E., R.L. Thoman, U.S. Bhatt, P.A. Bieniek, B. Brettschneider, 
M. Brubaker, S. Danielson, R. Lader, F. Fetterer, K. Holderied, K. 
Iken, A. Mahoney, M. McCammon, and J. Partain, 2018: The High Latitude 
Marine Heat Wave of 2016 and Its Impacts on Alaska. Bull. Amer. Meteor. 
Soc., 99, S39-S43, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0105.1

Batten, S.D., Raitsos, D.E., Danielson, S., Hopcroft, R., Coyle, K., 
McQuatters-Gollop, A. 2018.Interannual variability in lower trophic 
levels on the Alaskan Shelf. Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies 
in Oceanography, 147, pp. 79-86. DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2017.04.023
Effects of warming:

Erik R. Schoen, Mark S. Wipfli, E. Jamie Trammell, Daniel J. Rinella, 
Angelica L. Floyd, Jess Grunblatt, Molly D. McCarthy, Benjamin E. 
Meyer, John M. Morton, James E. Powell, Anupma Prakash, Matthew N. 
Reimer, Svetlana L. Stuefer, Horacio Toniolo, Brett M. Wells & Frank D. 
W. Witmer (2017) Future of Pacific Salmon in the Face of Environmental 
Change: Lessons from One of the World's Remaining Productive Salmon 
Regions, Fisheries, 42:10, 538-553

Sparks, M.M., Westley, P.A.H., Falke, J.A., and T.P. Quinn. 2017. 
Thermal adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in a warming world: 
insights from common garden experiments on Alaskan sockeye salmon. 
Global Change Biology 23:5203-5227.

Vega, S.L., Sutton, T.M., Murphy, J.M. 2017. Marine-entry timing and 
growth rates of juvenile Chum Salmon in Alaskan waters of the Chukchi 
and northern Bering seas. Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in 
Oceanography, 135, pp. 137-144. DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2016.02.002

Abernethy, R. and numerous others. 2018. State of the climate in 2017. 
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 99 (8), pp. Si-S310.

Karen M. Dunmall, James D. Reist, Eddy C. Carmack, John A. Babaluk, 
Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, and Margaret F. Docker. 2013. 
Pacific Salmon in the Arctic: Harbingers of Change available at: 
https://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/item.php?id=12185
Introduced species:

Sepulveda, A.J., Rutz, D.S., Dupuis, A.W., Shields, P.A., Dunker, K.J. 
2015. Introduced northern pike consumption of salmonids in Southcentral 
Alaska. Ecology of Freshwater Fish, 24 (4), pp. 519-531. DOI: 10.1111/
eff.12164

Roon, D.A., Wipfli, M.S., Wurtz, T.L., Blanchard, A.L. 2016. Invasive 
European bird cherry (Prunus padus) reduces terrestrial prey subsidies 
to urban Alaskan salmon streams. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and 
Aquatic Sciences, 73 (11), pp. 1679-1690. DOI: 10.1139/cjfas-2015-0548

Luizza, M.W., Evangelista, P.H., Jarnevich, C.S., West, A., Stewart, H. 
2016. Integrating subsistence practice and species distribution 
modeling: assessing invasive elodea's potential impact on Native 
Alaskan subsistence of Chinook salmon and whitefish. Environmental 
Management, 58 (1), pp. 144-163. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-016-0692-4
Chinook salmon decline:

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=chinookinitiative.main

Cunningham, C.J.**, Westley, P.H., Adkison, M.D. 2018. Signals of large 
scale climate drivers, hatchery enhancement, and marine factors in 
Yukon River Chinook salmon survival revealed with a Bayesian life 
history model. Global Change Biology 2018:1-18. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14315

Seigel, J.E., M.D. Adkison, and M.V. McPhee. 2018. Changing maturation 
reaction norms and the effects of growth history in Alaskan Chinook 
salmon. Marine Ecology Progress Series 595: 187-202. https://doi.org/
10.3354/meps12564

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2016/07/17/salmon-sharks-might-
play-a-role-in-king-salmon-declines/

Jason R. Neuswanger, Mark S. Wipfli, Matthew J. Evenson, Nicholas F. 
Hughes, and Amanda E. Rosenberger. 2015. Low productivity of Chinook 
salmon strongly correlates with high summer stream discharge in two 
Alaskan rivers in the Yukon drainage. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 72: 
1125-1137 (2015) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2014-0498

Ohlberger, J., Ward, E.J., Schindler, D.E., Lewis, B. 2018. Demographic 
changes in Chinook salmon across the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Fish and 
Fisheries, 19 (3), pp. 533-546. DOI: 10.1111/faf.12272

Dorner, B., Catalano, M.J., Peterman, R.M. 2018. Spatial and temporal 
patterns of covariation in productivity of Chinook salmon populations 
of the northeastern pacific ocean. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and 
Aquatic Sciences, 75 (7), pp. 1082-1095. DOI: 10.1139/cjfas-2017-0197
Straying and outbreeding:

McConnell, C.J., Westley, P.A.H., McPhee, M.V. 2018. Differences in 
fitness-associated traits between hatchery and wild chum salmon despite 
long-term immigration by strays. Aquaculture Environment Interactions 
10:99-113. DOI: 10.3354/AEI00261

Echave, J.D., Manhard, C.V., Smoker, W.W., Adkison, M.D., Gharrett, 
A.J. 2017. Out crosses between seasonally different segments of a 
Pacific salmon population reveal local adaptation. Environmental 
Biology of Fishes, 100 (11), pp. 1469-1481. DOI: 10.1007/s10641-017-
0657-3

Gharrett, A.J., Joyce, J., Smoker, W.W. 2013. Fine-scale temporal 
adaptation within a salmonid population: Mechanism and consequences. 
Molecular Ecology, 22 (17), pp. 4457-4469. DOI: 10.1111/mec.12400

Gilk, S.E., Wang, I.A., Hoover, C.L., Smoker, W.W., Taylor, S.G., Gray, 
A.K., Gharrett, A.J. 2004. Outbreeding depression in hybrids between 
spatially separated pink salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, populations: 
Marine survival, homing ability, and variability in family size. 
Environmental Biology of Fishes, 69 (1-4), pp. 287-297. DOI: 10.1023/
B:EBFI.0000022888.28218.c1

Schindler, Daniel E., Hilborn, Ray, Chasco, Brandon, Boatright, 
Christopher P., Quinn, Thomas P., Rogers, Lauren A.,Webster, Michael S. 
2010. Population diversity and the portfolio effect in an exploited 
species. Nature volume 465, pages 609-612.
Salmon economics:

https://iseralaska.org/research-areas/natural-resources/

Sugihara, G., Criddle, K.R., Ye, H., Lee, A., Pao, G., James, C., 
Saberski, E., Giron-Nava, A. 2018. Comprehensive incentives for 
reducing Chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea walleye Pollock 
fishery: Individual tradable encounter credits. Regional Studies in 
Marine Science 22:70-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.rsma.2018.06.002

Ward, E.J., Anderson, S.C., Shelton, A.O., Brenner, R.E., Adkison, 
M.D., Beaudreau, A.H., Watson, J.T., Shriver, J.C., Haynie, A.C., 
Williams, B.C. 2018. Effects of increased specialization on revenue of 
Alaskan salmon fishers over four decades. Journal of Applied Ecology 
55:1082-1091. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13058
Salmon-dependent communities:

Powell, J.E., Wipfli, M.S., Criddle, K.R., Schoen, E.R. 2018. Will 
Alaska's fisheries regime prove resilient? Kenai River fishery 
management as a model for adaptive governance. Fisheries 43(1):26-30. 
DOI: 10.1002/fsh.10022

Donkersloot, R. and C. Carothers. 2016. The graying of the Alaskan 
fishing fleet. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable 
Development. 58(3): 30-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/
00139157.2016.1162011

Donkersloot, R. and C. Carothers. 2017. Beyond privatization: 
rethinking fisheries stewardship and conservation in the North Pacific. 
Chapter 12 in Levin, P. S. and M. R. Poe (eds), Conservation for the 
Anthropocene Ocean: Interdisciplinary science in support of nature and 
people. Elsevier Academic Press.

Ringer D., Carothers C., Donkersloot R., Coleman J., Cullenberg P. 
2018. For generations to come? The privatization paradigm and shifting 
social baselines in Kodiak, Alaska's commercial fisheries. Marine 
Policy, 98, pp. 97-103.
Helping Stakeholders Participate in Management:

https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/bitstream/handle/11122/4394/asg-59.pdf

Krupa, M.B., Cunfer, M.M., Clark, S.J., O'Dean, E. 2018. Resurrecting 
the public record: Assessing stakeholder participation in Alaska's 
fisheries. Marine Policy, 96, pp. 36-43. DOI: 10.1016/
j.marpol.2018.07.010

    Senator Sullivan. Great. Thank you, Dr. Adkison. Dr. Baker.

          STATEMENT OF DR. MATTHEW BAKER, Ph.D., SCIENCE 
              DIRECTOR, NORTH PACIFIC RESEARCH BOARD

    Dr. Baker. Thank you, Senator, for the opportunity to 
testify today. So my name is Matthew Baker. I'm the Science 
Director of the North Pacific Research Board, a Congressionally 
created marine science funding organization that's based here 
in Anchorage, Alaska.
    My training is in quantitative fisheries science in part 
under Milo and looking at optimal management of salmon 
resources in Alaska, and I also have experience working in the 
red and king salmon fisheries in Bristol Bay.
    My primary role at NPRB is to direct the development of our 
scientific program to inform March ecosystem understanding and 
sustainable fisheries management, and to reflect the interest 
and the priorities of the institutions that are represented on 
our Board, as well as stakeholders more broadly in Alaska. And 
I'm joined today by Betsy Baker, who is our Executive Director, 
as well as Danielle Dickson, who is our Senior Program Manager.
    So just for some context, the North Pacific Research Board 
was created in 1997 through Congress to recommend marine 
research in Alaska to the U.S. Secretary of Congress. Those 
projects that are approved by the Secretary then go through a 
competitive process, in part funded by interest earned on the 
Environmental Improvement and Restoration Fund. Those funds are 
then used to conduct research activities on fisheries and 
marine ecosystems more broadly in the North Pacific Ocean.
    So NPRB prioritizes collaborative research that enhances 
both effective fishery management and broader marine 
understanding. Our Board is comprised of 20 different members 
representing Federal, state, Native Alaska, commercial fishing, 
oil and gas, academic and conservation interests. We also have 
a science panel, an advisory panel and staff.
    So we have three main research programs. One, our core 
program is oriented toward discipline-specific information; a 
second is integrated ecosystem research programs, which looks 
at more broad-scale integrated understanding of mechanisms 
within the marine environment; and then we also have a long-
term monitoring program that looks at changes in environmental 
conditions and variability. All three of those programs have 
had some focus on informing management of Alaska's salmon 
fisheries. And we also developed a large data repository as a 
function of the research done in that area.
    Since 2002 NPRB has provided $114 million in research. 
Salmon-specific studies have included--have been funded in 20 
of 22 years. And actually, the proposal or the request for 
proposals that we put out just this year is looking at research 
on anomalous changes in the abundance of sockeye salmon across 
a broad geographic range. In addition to the research that's 
salmon specific, we fund a variety of oceanographic and other 
studies that have some direct relevance to understanding 
salmon, particularly critical habitat, as Milo had mentioned, 
oceanographic conditions, marine competition and carrying 
capacity, environmental metrics that might be informative to 
forecasting recruitment, run size, run timing, run strength, 
stock assessment tools and models, data support, and social and 
economic considerations that are relevant to fisheries 
management.
    So since 2002, 51, or about 11 percent, of our awards have 
included salmon and their project descriptions, and 32 of those 
have been primarily salmon focused.
    We are a marine oriented organization, so I thought I would 
just sort of hit on the areas within the marine environment 
that are potentially relevant as research needs or data gaps. 
Those might include: Marine carrying capacity, thresholds and 
density-dependent constraints; modeling life history and stage-
specific mortality; genetic sampling and categorization of 
various stocks and substocks; species interactions, both 
between salmon species and other species, and spatial and diet 
overlap; improved methods for run timing and stock size 
forecasts; regional oceanographic models on understanding the 
physical influences on stock distribution and growth and 
survival; oceanographic processes, particularly related to the 
first year of ocean survival, as others have hit on already; 
and then forage species and their relative availability to 
salmon.
    So I think as an institution we are well positioned to 
coordinate between a variety of different institutions. As an 
example, Danielle Dickson is working with state and Federal 
scientists to pull together some ecological forecasting to 
better understand how to predict salmon run timing.
    We are also working with the National Center for Analysis 
and Synthesis on a few different initiatives: Coupling Climate 
and Salmon, and the State of Alaska Salmon and People projects, 
which are occurring--which occurred in the summer and in the 
fall, and then we've also put monies toward a 2019 workshop on 
salmon status and trends.
    So I think we work quite closely with all the institutions 
represented here and on the previous panel, and I think we do 
better work as we work together on that. And I think that's a 
role that we can help to facilitate. So we look forward to 
hearing more about how we might contribute to those efforts. 
And thanks for the opportunity to testify today.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Baker follows:]

   Prepared Statement of Dr. Matthew Baker, Ph.D., Science Director, 
                      North Pacific Research Board
    Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee joining the hearing 
remotely, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.
    My name is Matthew Baker. I am the Science Director of the North 
Pacific Research Board (NPRB), a Congressionally created marine science 
funding organization based in Anchorage, Alaska. My formal education is 
in marine ecology, statistics, and quantitative fisheries science 
through training at Columbia University and the University of 
Washington, where I contributed to the research developed in the 
Fisheries Research Institute and Alaska Salmon Program, programs active 
in Alaska since the 1940s. My graduate research focused on stock 
assessment and optimal management of salmon resources in Alaska. I also 
have experience working as crew in the Red and King salmon fisheries in 
Bristol Bay. Subsequent and current areas of research include 
groundfish distribution, survey design, multiplies fishery management, 
forage fish demographics and forage fish-salmon interactions. My 
primary role at NPRB is to direct the development of our scientific 
program to inform marine ecosystem understanding and sustainable 
fishery management and to reflect the interests and priorities of the 
institutions represented on our Board and to serve the needs of 
stakeholders in Alaska.
    I am joined today by Dr. Betsy Baker, NPRB Executive Director and 
Danielle Dickson, NPRB Senior Program Manager and Chief Officer for 
Collaboration and Synthesis.
I. NPRB: Funding Alaska Fishery and Ecosystem Science since 2002
    In 1997 Congress established the North Pacific Research Board 
(NPRB) to recommend marine research to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce 
(Secretary) relating to the waters off of Alaska.\1\ Research projects 
approved by the Secretary are funded through a competitive grant 
program using a portion of the interest earned on the Environmental 
Improvement and Restoration Fund (HEIR), which Congress created in the 
same enabling legislation. These funds must be used to conduct research 
activities on, or relating to, fisheries and marine ecosystems in the 
North Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and 
Arctic. NPRB prioritizes collaborative research that improves 
understanding of marine ecosystems and enhances effective fishery 
management and sustainable use of marine resources. The enabling 
legislation directs the Board to address pressing fishery management 
and marine ecosystem information needs. The Board is composed of twenty 
members, representing federal, state, Alaska Native, commercial 
fishing, oil and gas, academic, and conservation interests (Appendix 
A). The Board is supported by a Science Panel, an Advisory Panel, and 
NPRB staff.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations 
Act, 1998, PL 105-83, Title IV, Sec. 401, codified at 43 USC 1474d.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    Figure 1: NPRB supports research in the marine systems of the North 
Pacific, including the Gulf of Alaska (Strait of Juan de Fuca to Unimak 
Pass), Bering Sea (Alaska Peninsula to the Kamchatka Peninsula and 
north to the Bering Strait), Aleutian Islands (Unimak Pass to the 
Commander Islands), Chukchi Sea (Point Barrow to Cape Billings), 
Beaufort Sea (Point Barrow to Victoria Island), and processes in the 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
North Pacific and Arctic Ocean basins relevant to these regions.

    NPRB supports three marine science research programs, as well as 
graduate student research awards:

   IERP--Integrated ecosystem research programs in which dozens 
        of scientists integrate their disciplinary expertise over five 
        to seven years and multiple research cruises in specific 
        geographic regions (to date the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and 
        Arctic Ocean);

   CORE--Discipline-specific research by individual or small 
        groups of scientists. The Core program was formerly known as 
        the Annual program; and

   LTM--Long-term monitoring of oceanographic conditions in 
        three locations, two in the Gulf of Alaska and one on the 
        Northeast Chukchi shelf off the state's northwest coast.

    Integrated Ecosystem Research Programs provide information about 
mechanistic processes that structure marine ecosystems and drive 
change. The Core Program provides funds for research projects focused 
by discipline, including socioeconomic studies as well as natural 
science research. NPRB's Long-Term Monitoring Program is designed to 
provide stable funding in five-year increments, potentially over 
decades, for collecting data that provide useful indices of ecosystem 
conditions and variability. All three research programs, detailed 
below, have yielded results relevant to informing the management of 
Alaska's salmon fisheries.
    In addition to research results, NPRB funding has also created a 
substantial data repository for data generated by NPRB research. It is 
intended as a public repository for completed projects that includes 
data and metadata published through the NPRB Research Workspace, 
accessible through a public data portal http://projects.nprb.org/ and 
via our data partner Axiom Data Systems and DataOne, an international 
data platform.
    Since NPRB began funding research in 2002 it has provided over $114 
million in research sub-awards to 492 projects, based at 162 academic, 
community, and other research institutions:

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


II. Salmon relevant research funded by the North Pacific Research Board 
        2002-2018
    Salmon-specific studies have been funded in 20 of the 22 years that 
NPRB has awarded Annual (now Core) Program research funds. The call for 
proposals published in October 2018 for projects that will be reviewed 
in 2019 requests research proposals to address ``anomalous changes in 
abundance of sockeye salmon within a system or across a broad 
geographic range.'' In addition to research specifically targeting 
salmon, much of the research NPRB funds is relevant to understanding 
issues related to critical habitat, oceanographic conditions, species 
interactions relevant to marine competition and carrying capacity, 
environmental metrics informative to forecasting recruitment, run 
strength and timing, tools and approaches to improve stock assessment 
modeling, and social and economic considerations that can help inform 
management of Alaska's salmon fisheries.
    Three salmon-specific projects were among the funded by NPRB in our 
first year of operation alone, which was 2002:

   Application of new sonar technology to reducing salmon 
        bycatch in pollock fisheries--Alaska Fisheries Science Center 
        (AFSC) ($121,918).

   North Pacific anadromous fish commission salmon tagging--
        North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission ($190,800).

   Genetic stock identification of western Alaska sockeye 
        salmon--NMFS, ADF&G, Auke Bay Laboratory, AFSC ($216,515).

    A non-salmon specific study that first year that was also relevant 
to salmon fisheries was Detecting change in the Bering Sea, a joint 
project of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and NOAA Pacific Marine 
Environmental Laboratory ($124,084).
    Of the 453 Core projects NPRB funded between 2002 and 2018, 51--or 
11 percent--include salmon in their project descriptions have some 
implications for salmon management. Thirty-two of those projects 
targeted salmon as the primary species studied in the Gulf of Alaska 
(GOA) and the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Large Marine 
Ecosystems (LMEs). Those studies were evenly split between Bristol Bay, 
the Copper River, and the Yukon River. All three NPRB Integrated 
Ecosystem Research Programs--in the Bering, the Gulf and the Arctic--
have included salmon either as a species studied, or as one affected by 
other factors examined by these programs.
A. NPRB Integrated Ecosystem Research relevant to Alaska Salmon 
        Fisheries
    NPRB's Integrated Ecosystem Research Programs (IERPs) use a multi-
disciplinary approach to examine ecological processes in detail and 
provide a wealth of information that is relevant to addressing a wide 
variety of resource management questions. Here we highlight some 
examples of how these programs provide data and products that inform 
the management of Alaska's salmon fisheries.
Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea IERPs
    The Gulf of Alaska IERP (2010-2018), although focused on drivers of 
groundfish recruitment, provided data on salmon distribution and diet 
that were relevant to examining the role of salmon as competitors and 
predators of groundfish. The year 2011 was an anomalously low 
production year in the Gulf of Alaska and in 2011 salmon were in 
relatively poor body condition and stomach content analysis indicated 
lower feeding rates. The Gulf of Alaska IERP did not collect data 
during 2014-16 when anomalously warm conditions persisted in the Gulf 
of Alaska, however, data collected by NOAA scientists and others who 
participated in our GOA synthesis project provide evidence that poor 
prey quality in those years likely affected all salmon species in Gulf 
of Alaska waters. Scientists suggest that the Gulf of Alaska has 
demonstrated resilience to anomalous conditions that occur in any given 
year, but the persistence of anomalous conditions may have lasting 
effects on fish production and ecosystem dynamics.
    The Bering Sea IERP (2007-2016) reached similar conclusions with 
respect to pollock. When warm water conditions persisted over several 
years 2001-2005, pollock recruitment was negatively affected because 
zooplankton prey were limited (Hunt et al., 2011). The persistence of 
warm or cold conditions over consecutive years, termed a ``stanza'', 
can affect ecosystem dynamics more profoundly than interannual 
variability that oscillates year to year.
    The Gulf of Alaska IERP did not collect data 2014-2016 during 
persistent anomalous warm water conditions because the program was 
designed several years in advance to conduct research cruises mid-way 
through the funding period. However, the program developed 
oceanographic models that incorporate biological processes and those 
models could be used to examine questions specific to salmon ecology 
and the production of their prey. The current models run from 2000 to 
2013 and could be run into subsequent years to examine the conditions 
that salmon experience when they are in the offshore marine 
environment.
    The Gulf of Alaska IERP also provided insights into ecosystem 
dynamics in the Gulf of Alaska and contributed to identifying indices 
for the Ecosystem Considerations chapter of the North Pacific Fishery 
Management Council Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation report. As a 
result of this research and recognition of distinct dynamics in eastern 
and western sections of this ecosystem, the indices used to hindcast 
conditions in this ecosystem are now separated into eastern and western 
sections. This development is relevant to the management of all fish 
species in the Gulf of Alaska. The program also developed oceanographic 
models that incorporate biological processes, which might be used to 
examine questions specific to salmon ecology and production of prey 
resources. The current models run from 2000 to 2013 and could be run 
into subsequent years to examine conditions salmon experience in the 
offshore marine environment.
    The Gulf of Alaska IERP synthesis included genetic analyses of 
salmon captured in southeast Alaska in July 2011-2015 and found that 
juvenile salmon in the Gulf of Alaska in mid-summer are predominantly 
from the Columbia River, comprising nearly 80 percent of the samples. 
The study provides valuable information about the timing and speed of 
Chinook migrations. The results indicate that collaboration to combine 
data from surveys along the North American coastal migration pathway 
can provide information relevant to understanding stock-specific and 
inter-annual variation in the survival of juvenile salmon. Furthermore, 
sampling in the Gulf of Alaska may allow assessment of the marine 
survival of juvenile Columbia River Chinook salmon two years prior to 
their return to the river as adults (Van Doornik et al., in prep.).
    Research associated with the Bering Sea IERP on ``calorie-sheds'' 
supports the notion that collection of data across vast geographic 
regions is warranted to understand the factors influencing the health 
and survival of species throughout their range. Subsistence communities 
are especially concerned about cumulative impacts on migratory species.
Arctic IERP
    The Arctic IERP currently underway (2016-2021) will provide 
information relevant to addressing concerns about food security for 
Arctic residents and will collect data related to salmon, specifically. 
The focus of the program is on how reductions in Arctic sea ice and 
associated changes in the physical environment will influence the flow 
of energy through the ecosystem in the Chukchi Sea. The program 
includes examining the environmental factors that influence the 
distribution and abundance of fish in the U.S. Arctic, including pink 
and chum salmon. The program includes social science research that 
examines the relative influences of environmental and socioeconomic 
factors in determining food security for Arctic residents. The research 
includes consideration of local and traditional knowledge and members 
of Arctic communities participate in annual science meetings.
    NPRB is providing $7 million in base funding for the Arctic Program 
and leveraging partner funding from the Bureau of Ocean Energy 
Management, the Collaborative Alaskan Arctic Studies Program (formerly 
the North Slope Borough/Shell Baseline Studies Program), the Office of 
Naval Research Marine Mammals and Biology Program and in-kind 
contributions from NOAA (Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Pacific 
Marine Environmental Laboratory), the University of Alaska Fairbanks, 
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Science Foundation. 
The combined support for the program totals >$18 million.
B. NPRB discipline-specific research relevant to Alaska Salmon 
        Fisheries
    Of the 65 Core (formerly Annual) projects that named salmon in 
their abstracts, we identify 32 as having management application to 
salmon. Those 32 projects are highlighted in Appendix C, which includes 
all 65 projects naming salmon. In addition, we summarize below six Core 
projects of particular relevance to salmon management:

   NPRB project 0202--Application of new sonar technology to 
        reducing salmon bycatch in pollock fisheries--applied advanced 
        sonar technology to a cooperative industry/government effort to 
        modify pelagic trawls to reduce salmon bycatch in Alaska 
        pollock fisheries. Dual-frequency Identification SONar (DIDSON) 
        provided detailed observations of the behavior of these two 
        species within pelagic trawls and observations informed the 
        development and testing of salmon excluder designs. Excluder 
        development has progressed through repeating this sequence of 
        behavior observations, expert feedback, concept development, 
        design, model testing, full-scale observations and performance 
        experiments. Performance experiments indicate that more than 12 
        percent of the salmon escape, with a pollock loss less than 3 
        percent.

   NPRB project 0327--Early marine ecology of juvenile chum 
        salmon in Kuskokwim Bay, Alaska--investigated estuarine 
        residence of juvenile chum salmon, a stage of high mortality 
        that may ultimately determine year class strength. Results 
        included spatial and temporal patterns of estuarine 
        distribution, diet, and condition of chum salmon juveniles in 
        Kuskokwim Bay and a spatially-explicit foraging/bioenergetic 
        modeling that assessed growth potential of Kuskokwim Bay 
        habitats for outmigrating juvenile chum salmon. Results 
        indicated that timing of outmigration is highly important to 
        condition, growth, and subsequent survival probability.

   NPRB project 1111--Over-winter Survival of Bristol Bay 
        Sockeye Salmon at Sea--addressed variability in adult sockeye 
        salmon returns and related uncertainty in harvest forecasts and 
        economic returns. This project used historical measures of 
        scale growth (1960s-2010) and juvenile sockeye salmon in the 
        Bering Sea (2000-2010) to investigate whether productivity 
        shifts of sockeye salmon since the 1960s are related to shifts 
        in ocean productivity that affect early marine salmon growth 
        and overwinter survival and whether salmon growth and survival 
        are lower during ``cold'' water years when prey availability 
        and growth are reduced.

   NPRB project 1423--Defining critical periods for Yukon and 
        Kuskokwim river Chinook salmon--found that Chinook in the 
        Yukon-Kuskokwim region grow more slowly under warm water 
        conditions, likely because their prey are less available. This 
        annual project finding was complemented by the Bering Sea 
        Integrated Ecosystem Research Program (2007-2016), which 
        described mechanisms that limited pollock growth and survival 
        in the Bering Sea when warm water conditions persisted over 
        multiple years. A similar mechanism may affect Chinook.

   NPRB project 1619--Relative rate of survival (RRS) of pink 
        salmon in PWS--Returns from hatchery releases of pink and chum 
        salmon provide 51-97 million adult salmon to harvests, 
        contributing up to 25 percent of the exvessel value of the 
        statewide harvest. The Alaska Hatchery Research Program (AHRP) 
        sought to reduce uncertainty about straying and genetic 
        interactions between hatchery and wild stocks and used genetic 
        parentage analysis to estimate the relative reproductive 
        success of hatchery-origin pink salmon in natural streams to 
        investigate the potential for a reduction in fitness due to 
        hatchery straying and to inform resource management decisions 
        regarding hatchery production.

   NPRB project 1702--Data and information in salmon stock-
        recruitment analysis--is an ongoing review that emphasizes the 
        diverse types of primary data (e.g., counts, indices, model-
        derived reconstructions), auxiliary data (habitat quantity and 
        characteristics, environmental covariates), and considerations 
        of model structure, to determine their effects on the quality 
        of estimates of the stock-recruitment relationship. Best 
        practices will be emphasized to provide guidance to stock-
        recruitment analysts.
C. NPRB Long-Term Monitoring work relevant to Alaska Salmon Fisheries
    NPRB currently funds three Long-Term Monitoring projects:\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ The Gulf of Alaska Seward Line https://www.gulfwatchalaska.org/
monitoring/environmental-drivers/the-seward-line-marine-ecosystem-
monitoring-in-the-northern-gulf-of-alaska/; The North Pacific 
Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey https://www.pices.int/projects/
tcprsotnp/default.aspx/; and The Chukchi Ecosystem Observatory https://
www.uaf.edu/cfos/research/projects/ne-chukchi-sea-moored-eco/.

   The North Pacific Continuous Plankton Recorder Project is a 
        ship of opportunity monitoring program that has operated since 
        2000 using commercial ships to collect samples of phytoplankton 
        and zooplankton, and selected aspects of the physical 
        environment, along their regular routes of passage on a 
        seasonal basis. Project scientists recently found that pink 
        salmon predation induces a trophic cascade in plankton 
        populations in the southern Bering Sea and around the Aleutian 
        Islands (Batten et al., 2018). The results support the idea 
        that abundant pink salmon may affect the growth and survival of 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        the other four species of salmon that occur in this region.

   The Seward Line Project has operated in the Gulf of Alaska 
        for over 20 years and provides oceanographic data and other 
        indices of ecosystem health and variability. The project has 
        expanded over the years as new funding partners are added to 
        the consortium and was recently established as a National 
        Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research Site. NPRB 
        recently committed to providing funding for another five years 
        (FY20-24).

   The Chukchi Ecosystem Observatory consists of an array of 
        moored instruments that collect data on the Chukchi Sea shelf 
        near Hanna Shoal year-round. A wide range of data are collected 
        to address physical, chemical, and biological oceanography, 
        sediment flux, timing and magnitude of plankton blooms, and 
        fish and marine mammal migratory patterns. A similar moored 
        array will be added in the Gulf of Alaska soon that is 
        associated with the Seward Line project. Such instrumentation 
        provides valuable information about the ecosystem that should 
        prove useful to addressing questions relevant to salmon.
D. NPRB data relevant to informing Alaska's Salmon Fisheries
    All projects funded by NPRB are required to submit the data they 
generate to NPRB, which works with Axiom Data Science locally and with 
DataOne, an international data platform, to make it available to the 
NPRB science community and, after the required two-year embargo period 
passes, to the public. NPRB implemented comprehensive data publication 
processes in 2016 to improve overall access to the data. NPRB has 
started with the most recent projects (2014-2018) and is working to 
fully vet, process and release data from past projects. Archived data 
from legacy projects (pre-2014 awards) will be available through the 
NPRB web portal in the future.
III. Future research: Promising directions, and Research needs
A. Promising directions--Research and data coordination
    NPRB is interested in maximizing the use of NPRB-funded products 
and is actively working to create synergies with other organizations. 
NPRB's Chief Officer for Collaboration and Synthesis, Danielle Dickson, 
is working to foster collaboration with other organizations and 
demonstrating that NPRB can serve to coordinate Alaska marine research 
whether that research is funded directly by NPRB or not.

        Salmon run timing--supporting coordination between state and 
        Federal salmon managers. One relevant example is an ecological 
        forecasting project coordinated by NPRB staff and supported by 
        NOAA that involves collaboration among NOAA and ADF&G staff to 
        develop a salmon run timing model for Cook Inlet. The run 
        timing model will examine the relative influence of offshore 
        and nearshore marine environmental conditions and will make use 
        of data derived from various NPRB-funded projects, including 
        indices of zooplankton prey derived from the Gulf of Alaska 
        IERP model, zooplankton measurements collected by the Seward 
        Line Long-Term Monitoring project over the past two decades, 
        and runoff modeled by NPRB Core Program project 904. The model 
        will use decades worth of salmon time series data collected by 
        ADF&G and environmental data provided by NOAA Fisheries, 
        National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, U.S. 
        Geological Survey, and the Alaska Ocean Observing System. A 
        separate salmon run timing model for Yukon River Chinook salmon 
        supported by AOOS, NOAA, and ADF&G typically uses sea ice as an 
        important predictor of run timing but the virtually ice-free 
        conditions experienced in 2018 complicated the forecast and 
        illustrated the importance of identifying other relevant 
        environmental indices (Postseason Analysis of the 2018 Yukon 
        River Chinook Run Timing Forecast). Projects such as these 
        illustrate the power of coordinating research across various 
        organizations to forecast biological and ecological events and 
        this approach could be applied to other species or geographic 
        areas.

    NPRB is uniquely positioned to facilitate conversation about 
opportunities to coordinate marine research across a variety of 
organizations and sectors. The broad representation of the Board, 
including federal, state, industry, conservation, and Alaska Native 
interest seats, ensures that a wide variety of stakeholder voices are 
included in these discussions. The Board presents an opportunity for 
those stakeholder groups to leverage one another's resources, 
expertise, and perspectives to advance marine science in Alaska. NPRB 
staff have unique experience in developing research programs that 
address stakeholder concerns, building partnerships to fund such 
research, and implementing programs that achieve remarkable 
coordination and collaboration across disciplines and institutions.
    In some respects, despite Alaska's vast geographic area, 
coordinating research in Alaska is tenable because the community is 
tightly-knit. In both the scientific research community and the 
stakeholder community, the same individuals are often engaged in 
conversation in a variety of forums.
    Just two examples of NPRB staff involved in research and data 
coordination with other research organizations suggest promising 
research coordination directions:

        Salmon Data: coordination and data gaps. NPRB Science Director 
        Matthew Baker's participation in two activities sponsored by 
        the National Center for Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS): 
        Coupling Climate and Salmon (June 2018); and the State of 
        Alaska Salmon and People knowledge synthesis project (November 
        2018). These multi-institutional discussions are directly 
        relevant to identifying data streams useful to support salmon 
        research and have important insights relevant to informing 
        future directions in salmon management.

        Cross-organizational collaboration. The Federal Interagency 
        Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) Collaborations model 
        works well to coordinate Arctic research within and beyond 
        Federal agencies. The Collaborations model actively solicits 
        non-federal participants, bringing together scientists from 
        Federal, State, academic, NGO, industry, indigenous and 
        international organizations to share their work. The 
        Collaborations model could be applied more broadly to improve 
        coordination for other areas of Alaska and nationwide. NPRB 
        staff member Danielle Dickson serves as Co-Lead of the IARPC 
        Marine Ecosystems Collaboration Team. In that forum she works 
        to coordinate Arctic research with other organizations. The 
        success of such a model relies on strong participation; agency 
        staff from Alaska field offices and headquarters of each 
        Federal agency, and non-federal researchers from other public 
        and private entities should be encouraged to participate in 
        IARPC.
B. Research and funding needs
Research needs
    NPRB focuses exclusively on the marine environment. Given that 
perspective applied to a set of anadromous species, research needs 
relevant to the management of Alaska's salmon fisheries might include:

   Further analyses on marine carrying capacity, thresholds, 
        and density dependent constraints

   Further understanding and modeling of life cycle and stage-
        specific mortality

   Further research on inter-species interactions among salmon 
        and spatial and diet overlap of salmon species and stocks in 
        the marine environment

   Further genetic sampling and categorization of various 
        stocks and substocks

   Improved methods for run timing and stock-size forecasts

   Integrated regional oceanographic models that provide 
        insight into stock distribution, growth and survival

   Understanding of oceanographic processes that determine 
        plankton production and first year ocean survival for smolts

   Increased research on forage species and relative 
        availability to salmon stocks
Leveraging existing initiatives to share data and management practices
    As part of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission 
International Year of the Salmon 2019 (IYS--with projects from 2018-22) 
and recent National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis salmon 
projects, multiple research-oriented sessions have been convened to 
address issues related to effective salmon use, management and 
conservation. NPRB has provided conference support for a January 2019 
IYS workshop on Salmon Status and Trends. There is an opportunity to 
leverage these findings and conclusions to further inform state and 
Federal salmon management.
Funding Needs
    NPRB relies almost entirely on competitive annual grants from NOAA 
to fund the research described in this testimony but, as described in 
the next paragraph, those grant funds have diminished over time due to 
market influences. NPRB is grateful for the additional funds available 
through funding partnerships, which comprise a small percentage of our 
overall funding: For the Core (formerly Annual) program, NPRB has 
developed funding partnerships with the Oil Spill Recovery Institute 
and is in discussion with other potential partners; for the Integrated 
Ecosystem Research Programs (IERPs) with the National Science 
Foundation, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Collaborative 
Alaskan Arctic Studies Program (formerly the North Slope Borough/Shell 
Baseline Studies Program), the Office of Naval Research Marine Mammal 
and Biology Program and in-kind contributions from NOAA from NOAA 
(Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Pacific Marine Environmental 
Laboratory), the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the U.S. Fish & 
Wildlife Service, and the National Science Foundation. NPRB is actively 
working to develop additional funding partnerships.
    By law, NPRB receives 20 percent of interest earned on the 
Environmental Improvement and Restoration Fund established in the same 
law that created NPRB. However, EIRF investments are limited by law to 
interest bearing obligations of the United States. NPRB is feeling very 
acutely the negative Impact of sustained low yield on 10-year Treasury 
Notes on monies made available to NPRB for science funding. In recent 
years grants based on those yields have dropped from almost $9 million 
in 2011 to $6.9 million in FY 2019, severely restricting our ability to 
fund our research programs at levels that provide scientists with the 
support they need. For example, in 2019 funding for the discipline-
specific Core Program will drop from $4.5 to $4 million; the program 
used to be known as the ``Annual Program'' but was recently renamed the 
Core program to reflect the fact that annual funding of the program 
could not necessarily be guaranteed. Although the Board recently 
committed $1 million for the synthesis phase of the Arctic IERP, set-
asides for future integrated ecosystem research programs are pending 
clarity on NPRB's near-term funding.
Concluding Remarks
    Thanks to the foresight of Senator Ted Stevens and his 
congressional colleagues in establishing the North Pacific Research 
Board in 1997, NPRB has been able to contribute valuable research 
relevant to the management of Alaska's salmon fisheries in the sixteen 
years we have awarded research funds. As each of the organizations and 
witnesses testifying today at this hearing make clear, the value of our 
research is multiplied when we work together. We appreciate the 
opportunity to highlight NPRB research and to demonstrate and learn 
from all of these witnesses new ways we can combine our collective 
research and expertise to help improve management of Alaska's salmon 
fisheries.
    Thank you for your consideration of our testimony. We look forward 
to answering your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
Sources cited:

        Batten, S.D., Ruggerone, G.T. and Ortiz, I. 2018. Pink Salmon 
        induce a trophic cascade in plankton populations in the 
        southern Bering Sea and around the Aleutian Islands. Fisheries 
        Oceanography 27(6):548-559.

        Hunt, G. L., Coyle, K. O., Eisner, L. B., Farley, E. V., 
        Heintz, R. A., Mueter, F., Napp, J. M., Overland, J. E., 
        Ressler, P. H., Salo, S., and Stabeno, P. J. 2011. Climate 
        impacts on eastern Bering Sea foodwebs: a synthesis of new data 
        and an assessment of the Oscillating Control Hypothesis.--ICES 
        Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1230-1243.

        Mecum, B., P. Mundy, and J. Watson. Postseason Analysis of the 
        2018 Yukon River Chinook Run Timing Forecast. https://
        www.aoos.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/
        2018_yukon_chinook_post_season_analysis.pdf

        Van Doornik, D.M., B.R. Beckman, J.H. Moss, W.W. Strasburger, 
        and D.J. Teel. In Prep. Stock specific abundance of Columbia 
        River juvenile Chinook salmon in the Gulf of Alaska. Draft in 
        the final report for the Gulf of Alaska Integrated Ecosystem 
        Research Program Synthesis NPRB project number 1533.
                                 ______
                                 
                               Appendix A
                         NPRB Board Composition
    As codified in 43 U.S.C. Sec. 1474d, the Board is composed of 20 
members:

   Ten seats are ex-officio representatives or their designees, 
        with no official term length:

                Secretary of Commerce,
                Secretary of State, Secretary of the Interior,
                Commandant of the Coast Guard,
                Director of the Office of Naval Research,
                the Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game,
                Chairman of the North Pacific Fishery Management 
                Council,
                Chairman of the Arctic Research Commission,
                Director of the Oil Spill Recovery Institute, and
                Director of the Alaska SeaLife Center.

   Nine seats are held by members appointed by the Secretary of 
        Commerce from nominations provided by the governors of

                Alaska (five seats),
                Washington (three seats), and
                Oregon (one seat).

    These board members serve for three-year terms and may be 
reappointed. The five Alaska seats must represent fishing interests, 
Alaska Natives, conservation interests, academia, and oil and gas 
interests.

   One seat is appointed by the Secretary of Commerce from a 
        Board nomination to represent fishing interests. This is also a 
        three-year term appointment but is not renewable.
                                 ______
                                 
                               Appendix B
                             Abbreviations

ADF&G                     Alaska Department of Fish and Game
 
AFSC                      Alaska Fisheries Science Center
 
BOEM                      Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management
 
BSAI                      Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands
 
DIDSON                    Dual-frequency Identification SONar
 
DFO                       Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
 
EIRF                      Environmental Improvement and Restoration Fund
 
GOA                       Gulf of Alaska
 
IARPC                     Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee
                           (Federal)
 
IERP                      Integrated Ecosystem Research Program
 
IYS                       International Year of the Salmon (NPAFC)
 
LME                       Large Marine Ecosystems
 
LTER                      Long-Term Ecological Research Site (NSF)
 
LTM                       Long-term Monitoring
 
NCEAS                     National Center for Ecological Analysis and
                           Synthesis
 
NMFS                      National Marine Fisheries Service
 
NOAA                      National Oceanic and Atmospheric
                           Administration
 
NPAFC                     North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission
 
NPRB                      North Pacific Research Board
 
NSF                       National Science Foundation
 
PMEL                      Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
 
PWSSC                     Prince William Sounds Science Center
 
UA                        University of Alaska
 
UAF                       University of Alaska Fairbanks
 
UAS                       University of Alaska Southeast
 
USFS                      U.S. Forest Service
 


                                                                       Appendix C
                                          NPRB Core/Annual Projects including salmon in the described research
 
   Project      Year                NPRB Project Title                  Awarded      Status          Theme          LME          Lead Institution
 
80202           2002  Application of new sonar technology to             $121,918     closed   Fishes &              GOA  AFSC
                       reducing salmon bycatch in pollock fisheries                             Invertebrates
0204            2002  North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission           $190,800     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  North Pacific Anadromous Fish
                       Salmon Tagging                                                           Invertebrates              Commission
0205            2002  Genetic stock identification of western Alaska     $216,515     closed   Fishes &              GOA  ADF&G, AFSC
                       sockeye salmon                                                           Invertebrates
0303            2003  North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission           $499,080     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  ADF&G, AFSC
                       Cooperative Research: genetic stock                                      Invertebrates
                       identification
0310            2003  Estuaries as essential fish habitat for            $400,022     closed   Fishes &              GOA  PWSSC, USFS, Pacific Northwest
                       salmonids: assessing residence time and                                  Invertebrates              Research Station
                       habitat use
0311            2003  Establishing a statewide data warehouse of          $43,066     closed   Fishes &              GOA  ADF&G
                       salmon size, age and growth records                                      Invertebrates
0317            2003  Pre-season forecast of Bristol Bay sockeye          $24,930     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  Natural Resource Consultants
                       salmon migration timing based on                                         Invertebrates              Inc.
                       oceanographic and biological variable
0321            2003  Alternative hypotheses for the collapse of the     $192,850     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  Bristol Bay Science & Research
                       Kvichak sockeye salmon                                                   Invertebrates              Institute, Natural Resource
                                                                                                                           Consultants
0327            2003  Early marine ecology of juvenile chum salmon       $624,025     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  UAF, USGS Alaska Science
                       in Kuskokwim Bay, Alaska                                                 Invertebrates              Center
0504            2005  Analysis of ongoing salmon programs                 $99,850     closed   Fishes &              GOA  Consulting Fisheries
                                                                                                Invertebrates              Scientist0
0520            2005  Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Observations              $420,000     closed   Lower Trophic         GOA  UAF
                                                                                                Level
                                                                                                Productivity
0521            2005  A profiling echosounder for North Pacific          $100,000     closed   Fishes &              GOA  Institute of Ocean Sciences,
                       monitoring                                                               Invertebrates              DFO
0535            2005  Dietary specialization of Killer Whales            $183,140     closed   Marine Mammals        GOA  AFSC, Northwest Fisheries
                                                                                                                           Science Center, UAF
0536            2005  A continuous plankton recorder survey of the       $100,000     closed   Lower Trophic         GOA  DFO, Kintama Research, Sir
                       North Pacific and southern Bering Sea                                    Level                      Alister Hardy Foundation for
                                                                                                Productivity               Ocean Science
0603            2006  Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Observations              $415,925     closed   Lower Trophic         GOA  UAF
                                                                                                Level
                                                                                                Productivity
0630            2006  Food web linkages: Forage Fish in the Aleutian     $163,845     closed   Fishes &              GOA  USF&WS, USGS Alaska Science
                       Archipelago                                                              Invertebrates              Center
0642            2006  Forage Fish Prince William Sound Nearshore         $150,000     closed   Fish Habitat          GOA  AFSC
0708            2007  Gulf of Alaska Longterm Observation Program        $249,996     closed   Lower Trophic         GOA  UAF
                       (LTOP)                                                                   Level
                                                                                                Productivity
80731           2007  Temperature data collections on BS groundfish      $147,816     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  AFSC, Marine Conservation
                       vessels                                                                  Invertebrates              Alliance Foundation, PMEL0
0805            2008  On-shelf transport of mesozooplankton in           $169,050     closed   Lower Trophic         GOA  UAF
                       subarctic seas                                                           Level
                                                                                                Productivity
80823           2008  Cultural Models of Copper River Salmon Biology      $99,535     closed   Human Dimensions      GOA  Ahtna Inc., ADF&G, Ecotrust,
                                                                                                                           North Cape Fisheries
                                                                                                                           Consulting, UA
0915            2009  Disease severity in Chinook salmon during           $99,998     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  Purdue University, UAF
                       marine migration                                                         Invertebrates
0922            2009  Eyak Lake community monitoring project              $98,949     closed   Lower Trophic         GOA  Prince William Soundkeeper,
                                                                                                Level                      PWSSC
                                                                                                Productivity
1008            2010  Salmon bycatch in the BSAI pollock fisheries       $393,449     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  UAF
                                                                                                Invertebrates
1009            2010  Chinook Survival                                   $302,262     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  University of Washington
                                                                                                Invertebrates
1019            2010  Assessment of Health Conditions of Subsistence      $49,947     closed   Other Prominent       GOA  Chugach Regional Resources
                       Fish and Shellfish                                                       Issues                     Commission, NOAA
1110            2011  Pink salmon response to climate change             $157,350     closed   Fishes &              GOA  UAS
                                                                                                Invertebrates
1111            2011  Over-winter Survival of Bristol Bay Sockeye        $219,006     closed   Fishes &              GOA  ADF&G, Natural Resources
                       Salmon at Sea                                                            Invertebrates              Consultants, Inc., AFSC0
1114            2011  Steller sea lion diet and population trend in      $392,500     closed   Marine Mammals       BSAI  AFSC, SMRU Ltd.
                       the Aleutians
1122            2011  Development of a fish health and composition        $39,816     closed   Fishes &              GOA  AFSC
                       analyzer                                                                 Invertebrates
81308           2013  Early Marine Ecology of Juvenile Chinook           $172,903     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  AFSC0
                       Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) on the                                 Invertebrates
                       Yukon Delta, Alaska
1315            2013  Bioeffects Assessment in Bristol Bay                $91,164     closed   Other Prominent      BSAI  NOAA
                                                                                                Issues
1319            2013  Benthic impacts of raised groundgear for the       $286,068     closed   Fish Habitat         BSAI  Alaska Pacific University,
                       Bering Sea pollock fishery                                                                          AFSC
81412           2014  Yukon River Patterns and Trends                    $199,949      ended   Human Dimensions     BSAI  ADF&G, Alaska Pacific
                                                                                                                           University
1413            2014  Value of Salmon                                     $92,695     closed   Human Dimensions     BSAI  Yukon River Drainage Fisheries
                                                                                                                           Association
1414            2014  Copper River Salmon Blitz                          $152,753     closed   Fish Habitat          GOA  Copper River Watershed Project
1422            2014  Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) Chinook salmon         $70,006     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  ADF&G, NOAA, Spearfish
                       egg thiamine exploration                                                 Invertebrates              Research
1423            2014  Defining critical periods for YK Chinook           $244,350     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  ADF&G, AFSC, University of
                                                                                                Invertebrates              Washington
1424            2014  Fitness-based habitat models for Chinook           $495,282     closed   Fishes &             BSAI  University of Georgia0
                       salmon                                                                   Invertebrates
1519            2015  Social and ecological resilience in a Gulf of      $153,453     closed   Human Dimensions      GOA  ADF&G
                       Alaska community
81524           2015  Investigating causes of decline of the Klawock      $98,622     closed   Community             GOA  The Nature Conservancy of
                       Lake sockeye salmon population                                           Involvement                Alaska0
1529            2015  Tracking marine fish with a payload-controlled     $194,556     active   Technology            GOA  AFSC
                       autonomous underwater vehicle                                            Development
1531            2015  Construction of a fish health and body              $49,566     closed   Technology           BSAI  Seafood Analytics
                       composition analyzer                                                     Development
1613            2016  Local and traditional knowledge of Alaska          $105,713     active   Human Dimensions      GOA  UAF
                       coastal ecosystems
81619           2016  Relative reproductive success of pink salmon       $289,435     active   Cooperative           GOA  ADF&G0
                       in Prince William Sound                                                  Research with
                                                                                                Industry
1622            2016  ADF&G Data Rescue and Dissemination                $299,128     active   Data Rescue          BSAI  ADF&G
81702           2017  Data and information in salmon stock-               $96,041     active   Fishes &              GOA  UAF
                       recruitment analysis                                                     Invertebrates
1710            2017  State-space model of factors affecting coho         $82,195     active   Fishes &              GOA  UAS0
                       survival and abundance                                                   Invertebrates
1712            2017  Oil spills and Pacific herring population          $208,346     active   Fishes &              GOA  NOAA Northwest Fisheries
                       recruitment                                                              Invertebrates              Science Center
81719           2017  Policy Choices and Permit Migration in a            $99,355     active   Human Dimensions      GOA  UAF
                       Limited Entry Permit (LEP) Fishery
1724            2017  A sex identification assay for Chinook salmon      $167,335     active   Technology            GOA  University of Washington0
                                                                                                Development
 
See Appendix B for abbreviations


    Senator Sullivan. Good. Thank you, Dr. Baker. Ms. Gillis.

      STATEMENT OF KAREN GILLIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 
           BERING SEA FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATION

    Ms. Gillis. Thank you. Good morning, Senator Sullivan. I 
wanted to thank you for organizing the hearing here in 
Anchorage and especially during AFN.
    The Senator is correct. My name is Karen Gillis. I'm the 
Executive Director at Bering Sea Fishermen's Association, an 
organization formed in 1979 with 150 fishermen from across the 
reaches of Bristol Bay up through Kotzebue Sound.
    I will recognize I have staff in the audience: Joe Spaeder, 
who is my Research Coordinator and has been since the early 
2000s; Katie Williams, who is my Sustainable Salmon Initiative 
Program Director; Chris Stark, who is an offsite Fairbanks 
Biologist for us. And I see a Board Member of mine, John 
Lamont. So thank you, John, for being here.
    For 40 years we have proven ourselves by relentlessly 
working to serve the needs of Western Alaska, and indirectly 
the entire state by creating economic opportunities, such as 
the Community Development Quota Program; empowering residents 
and communities through our responsible stewardship policies; 
and advocating for the application of the best available salmon 
science and management practices in Alaska.
    Our work is proactive, synergistic, complementary to public 
services, and rooted in collaborative efforts. There are 
fisheries, such as those in Western Alaska, facing persistent 
and severe declines. We cannot conserve the abundance and 
diversity of nature without knowing how natural systems work 
and how they respond to the many factors that influence them. 
Putting fish in the hands of the harvesters relies on 
innovative, cooperative and interdisciplinary research, which 
cuts across cultural, academic, national and institutional 
boundaries.
    In the Arctic, Yukon and Kuskokwim regions, or AYK, 
residents depend on the sustainable harvest of wild salmon. In 
my written testimony submitted to the Committee, we detail the 
status and threats to sustainability of Western Alaska Chinook 
salmon stocks.
    As a result of the recent declines, harvesters are not able 
to meet subsistence needs. In fact, the established amounts 
necessary for subsistence have not been met for the last seven 
years on both the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Further evidence 
of this decline is that total estimated returns evaluated by 
the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council's 3-System Index 
has fallen below the 250,000-fish threshold, potentially 
triggering future bycatch reduction measures.
    The steep decline in the total number of Chinook salmon is 
made worse by two additional factors: There is a documented 
decline in escapement quality, especially in the decreasing 
size of female spawning salmon, resulting in fewer eggs in the 
gravel. The other is smaller, currently less productive stocks 
in this period are more vulnerable to overharvest and 
extirpation. Regarding data gaps, there is an urgent need for 
proactive and coordinated research, monitoring and recovery 
efforts for salmon stocks.
    My written testimony identifies a full set of salmon 
research and monitoring gaps for the AYK. Some of these include 
understanding the drivers and consequences of shrinking size of 
Chinook salmon, assessing risks to the most vulnerable Chinook 
salmon stocks, as well as researching the impact of climate 
change on salmon and their habitat.
    We face two additional hurdles regarding information gaps. 
First, the defunding--recent defunding and declining funds for 
long-term state and Federal salmon monitoring projects, as well 
as private organizations around the state. Second, awards to 
Alaska under NOAA's Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund have 
steeply declined since 2000--lots of things have declined 
apparently--despite the program's highest priority to address 
factors limiting the productivity of Pacific salmon either 
listed under ESA or necessary for Native subsistence fishing.
    In response to salmon declines, BSFA, the Association of 
Village Council Presidents, Tanana Chiefs Conference and 
Kawerak organized and invited state and Federal agencies to 
create the AYK Sustainable Salmon Initiative. Established in 
2002, our science-based program works collaboratively to 
identify and address the critical salmon research needs facing 
the AYK region.
    This is a unique and innovative approach. We are a well-
established program, allowing us to build on and leverage the 
research and monitoring activities of our state and Federal 
partners. We work on a consensus-based decisionmaking process, 
so every decision that is made under the AYK SSI is approved by 
the state agents, Federal agents and regional organizations and 
BSFA. We are working to implement our AYK Chinook Salmon 
Research Action Plan, which I brought several copies, but can 
provide more, and hoping it will be uploaded to the website. It 
was developed by a panel of----
    Senator Sullivan. We will submit that for the record for 
the Committee.
    Ms. Gillis. Thank you, Senator.
    The plan was developed by a panel of prominent scientists, 
and our program works to understand the drivers of declines and 
returns throughout the state of the entire salmon life cycle.
    Until we better understand the trends and causes of 
variation of salmon abundance, we don't know how management 
strategies might be helping or hurting. We don't know if 
declines are driven by human impacts or shifts in ocean 
productivity. We don't know if escapement goals are adequate. 
And we cannot forecast major shifts in salmon abundance.
    Drawing on our extensive experience, we recommend 
establishing more funding mechanisms, particularly for the 
Sustainable Salmon Initiative and collaborative efforts like 
that, also fully funding state and Federal agencies to do their 
part of this job. We recommend reinvesting in monitoring 
programs, as BSFA's worked with the Department of Interior 
since 1994 to fund.
    I'm grateful for today's opportunity. I really look forward 
to working with you to rebuild and maintain the health of 
Alaska's salmon fisheries. And I'm excited for the questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Gillis follows:]

        Prepared Statement of Karen Gillis, Executive Director, 
                   Bering Sea Fishermen's Association 
                   
    Thank you, Chairman Thune, Senator Sullivan, and Members of the 
Committee, for organizing today's field hearing. My name is Karen 
Gillis. I am the Executive Director of Bering Sea Fishermen's 
Association (BSFA). I am honored to be here today to extend your 
awareness of the health of Alaska's salmon fisheries and share our 
opinions on the capability, or lack thereof, as it pertains to the 
current data and information necessary for maintaining healthy and 
sustainable salmon stocks in Alaska.
    Ultimately, I recommend establishing a funding mechanism for the 
Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative which provides a 
Native, state and Federal science-based partnership undertaking 
collaborative salmon research informing the rebuilding and management 
of declined western Alaskan salmon stocks. Our collaborative 
partnership has an extensive track record of applied research and 
restoration activities as presented herein.
Not A Traditional Fishermen's Association
    Bering Sea Fishermen's Association was formed in 1979 with 150 
fishermen from over 30 villages in western Alaska ranging from Bristol 
Bay to Kotzebue Sound. These fishermen united to become more involved 
in new fisheries that were developing directly off their coastline, and 
to build an organization that was concerned with helping local 
fishermen gain full economic benefits from Alaska's fisheries.
    Commercial companies often fished in Alaska waters with short-
sighted aggressiveness. As early as 1899, Alaska Natives appealed to 
the government to protect the salmon for those who relied on it for 
food.
    For decades, foreign fleets scooped up fish and sailed away, while 
Alaska's own fishermen had no way to access these fisheries due to the 
lack of adequate venture capital, infrastructure, and local expertise. 
BSFA initially set about assessing the viability of developing herring 
fisheries compatible with the rural Alaskan lifestyle.
    We've grown and adapted as necessary in response to the fishery 
issues of most pressing need, focused on healthy and vibrant fishing 
communities, we foster greater capacity to access and develop fisheries 
in the Arctic, Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Bristol Bay (BBAYK) regions of 
Alaska. Within this area there are 128 communities and just over 
120,000 residents.
    We are committed to the sustainable management of Alaska's 
resources and serve as stewards of the extraordinary lifestyle and 
culture of Alaskans. We serve to strengthen local communities, improve 
equitable access to fishery resources, support long-term ecological 
integrity, and stimulate robust economies.
    BSFA enjoys a long list of successes. We've played a significant 
role in the development of western Alaskan herring and halibut 
fisheries, succeeded to establish the Chinook salmon savings areas and 
other salmon bycatch reduction measures in the Bering Sea, constructed 
community fish plants and cold storage facilities, worked to eliminate 
high-seas driftnet interception, and foreign high-seas piracy activity 
in cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard. We were the force behind the 
design and implementation of the Community Development Quota (CDQ) 
Program with Harold Sparck that launched the six CDQ corporations. 
We've guided and funded salmon research and monitoring efforts in the 
BBAYK as well as being an incubator for various fisheries research and 
coordinating programs and nonprofits some of which include:

   Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association
                An association of subsistence and commercial fishers 
                with a mission of protecting and promoting all wild 
                fisheries and traditional cultures within the Yukon 
                River drainage.

   Norton Sound Salmon Research and Restoration Program
                A forum to engage in a collaborative, regional and 
                interagency-based approach to developing and 
                implementing a comprehensive and strategic Norton Sound 
                Salmon Research and Restoration Plan.

   Bristol Bay Buy-back Coalition
                A coalition of tribes, regional Alaska organizations 
                and fishing companies formed and succeeded to influence 
                the Federal government to buy back $95M in oil and gas 
                leases sold in October 1988 to offshore oil and gas 
                companies interested in exploring in the North Aleutian 
                Basin Planning Area encompassing Bristol Bay and the 
                southeast Bering Sea.

   Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Tribal Consortium
                Based on a Memorandum of Understanding, the AYKTC 
                consists of the Association of Village Council 
                Presidents, Tanana Chiefs Conference, and Kawerak, Inc. 
                The Consortium utilizes BSFA to manage the Arctic-
                Yukon-Kuskokwim Tribal Research & Restoration Program 
                to administer Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Funds to 
                address a set of critical uncertainties and key factors 
                limiting the productivity of Chinook salmon in the AYK 
                region.

   Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative
                A science-based program working cooperatively to 
                identify and address the critical salmon research needs 
                facing the AYK region. The AYK SSI is the largest 
                example of co-management of research funding within the 
                Pacific Rim and one of the largest experiments in the 
                co-management of fisheries and wildlife research in 
                North America.

    Most recently we've launched the Alaska Ocean Cluster Initiative to 
grow Alaska's vibrant, diversified, and resilient blue economy by 
encouraging and advancing innovators and entrepreneurs to create 
sustainable products and services from our vast and renewable ocean 
resources.
    BSFA is a bridging organization, an entity which connects diverse 
groups for collaboration and learning. Our success lies in our ability 
to be nimble and willing to take on difficult issues quickly with 
efficient outcomes; both financially and timely. We build trust and 
achieve conflict resolution and we value supporting local 
organizations, creating linkages, increasing local influence on policy, 
and disseminating new visions and organizational innovations. Bridging 
organizations are central players in an emerging ``multisectoral'' 
development paradigm that is less subject to the flaws of the still-
dominant market-led and state-led paradigms. Evidence from different 
natural resource management settings shows that bridging organizations 
can add value to governing processes by reducing the transaction costs 
of management.
    BSFA acts as a platform for communication among residents and the 
wide-range of agencies that oversee and manage fisheries in western 
Alaska. More importantly, BSFA supports the capacity of residents to 
actively engage in the management and development of their own 
fisheries. BSFA does not ``represent'' the interests of our 
communities, we ``serve'' their interests by engaging and supporting 
residents to bring the ideas and needs of western Alaska to state, 
Federal and international forums.
BSFA & Freshwater Salmon Monitoring
    Among all the animals that serve as a source of food for humans, 
salmon are iconic. Their wide-ranging habit of migrating from 
freshwater to the ocean and back are indicators of ecological health. 
They play invaluable ecological, social, and cultural roles in Alaska 
and around the globe.
    Salmon are highly valued culturally simply for their existence, 
socially as a source of food, and economically as a source of wealth 
through fisheries and tourism.
    The well-being of humans and salmon are intimately linked in 
coastal communities. Indigenous peoples, resource managers, fishers, 
processors, businesses, and governments have demonstrated a need to 
understand what drives the variation we see in salmon abundance now and 
into a future with climate change.
    Salmon abundance fluctuates on intra-annual to decadal scales and 
the causes of this variation have not yet found convincing explanations 
in any ocean.
    In the summer of 1993, western Alaska experienced a failure in the 
chum salmon run on a scale never before seen. While some chum returns--
particularly northern Norton Sound--had already been depressed, the 
region-wide poor returns led to sweeping subsistence and commercial 
fishery restrictions, closures, and lack of adequate spawning 
escapements to most river systems throughout the AYK region of Alaska. 
One aspect that became apparent in the face of these disastrous returns 
was a need to increase monitoring of the salmon returns to improve 
fishery management. This may not be as important when runs are healthy, 
but when poor runs dominate, fishery managers must exercise even 
greater caution when faced with inadequate information.
    Beginning in 1994, BSFA received funds from the Department of 
Interior for research and monitoring of salmon returns in the AYK 
region. After working with fishery managers to create cooperative 
efforts between state, federal, and local entities, BSFA passed-through 
over 80 percent of this funding to rural communities and regional 
Native organizations and created the most extensive collection of 
cooperative monitoring projects ever seen in Alaska. Western Alaskan 
residents were, for the first time, directly involved in gathering 
information to better understand and help manage their fisheries, and 
the fishery managers now had a greatly expanded set of information upon 
which to base management decisions.
    Federal appropriations for this program continued through 2006 but 
ended abruptly. Without this information the data available to inform 
fishery managers has become increasingly limited, continued state 
budget cuts led to unprecedented levels of uncertainty in day-to-day 
decisions.
BSFA & Marine Research
    BSFA has been a long-time supporter of understanding the 
variability of marine ecology of Pacific salmon as it relates to their 
sustainability. We have fostered, funded and partnered with state, 
Federal and regional organizations to investigate the ecological 
mechanisms regulating marine distribution and production of salmon 
populations, climate change impacts, retrospective analysis of key 
populations as indicators of conditions in North Pacific marine 
ecosystems, and implications of stock identification and model 
development for salmon management. Our Western Alaska Marine Salmon 
Studies (WAMSS) program maintains a strong relationship with the NOAA 
Fisheries, University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and 
Ocean Sciences and the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) 
to improve the understanding of the marine-life history state of salmon 
in the Bering Sea.
    While WAMSS is suspended due to a lack of funding, international 
efforts to reengage in high-seas research is underway. On October 11, 
2018 the NPFAC announced the International Year of the Salmon, a five-
year initiative which includes a high-seas expedition to the central 
Gulf of Alaska.
    Given the pace of change and the degree of uncertainty we need to 
effectively use the capacity of these multi-agency efforts to be 
efficient in our sharing of what we know, conducting research to 
address known gaps in our understanding, and to stand ready to 
effectively address surprises when they emerge.
    Despite the investments, our ability to understand the relationship 
of salmon to our actions and the changing environment remains a 
challenge. Fishery managers continue to pursue a balance between 
commercial and subsistence fishing objectives while remaining mindful 
of Alaska's treaty obligations to Canada. Advocating for sustainable 
fisheries management practices and stewardship of Alaska's resources 
means BSFA will never tire of tracking decisions and activities that 
might threaten Alaska's fisheries, the resources upon which we depend, 
and the people who make up the history of this great land.
Community-Based Salmon Harvest Monitoring on the Kuskokwim River
    Data to inform Kuskokwim River salmon fishery management is very 
limited. Because subsistence harvests are not assessed until after the 
season, information on run timing, strength, and composition from the 
upper three quarters of the drainage is extremely limited to inform in-
season management decisions. At the same time, communities have shown 
strong interest in participating in a community-based salmon monitoring 
program.
    As a result of the 2012 Federal Fisheries Disaster Declaration and 
at the request of the Association of Village Council Presidents, BSFA 
developed a work-plan for an integrated set of community-based 
monitoring projects to address three objectives:

  1.  Inform an operative in-season fisheries management model with 
        relevant additional data from across the watershed.

  2.  Build fisheries research capacity in community level 
        organizations in the watershed.

  3.  Improve data transparency and ownership in the management 
        decision process.

    The Community-Based Salmon Harvest Monitoring program is designed 
to support the management of salmon throughout the watershed. This 
project involves harvest monitors in participating villages being 
selected, trained and mentored to collect data for in-season 
assessment, and to provide public outreach regarding the goals of 
management and assessment.
    Data or sample collection varied by river location and management 
data needs but includes:

   Near real-time harvest reporting

   Drift gillnet catch per unit effort (CPUE) of Chinook salmon 
        and other species to index run timing and strength

   Age, sex and length (ASL) data necessary to assess 
        escapement quality

   Catch ratio of chum and sockeye to Chinook salmon

   Temperature monitoring in selected tributaries to assess 
        thermal stress on Chinook salmon and other salmon species

   Other information that informs management of the fisheries

    This data collection program bolsters engagement with fisheries 
management as well as builds fisheries research capacity within local 
institutions.
    A central goal of the project is to provide fisheries research 
expertise to work with regional partner organizations to:

   Build capacity and train community-based monitors and 
        harvest reporters.

   Assist with project design, start-up and implementation.

   Assist with data collection, reporting and in-season trouble 
        shooting.

   Assist with communicating fisheries management decisions to 
        community partners.

    The project partners with a set of regional organizations across 
the watershed such as the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, 
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Alaska Department of Fish & Game 
(ADFG), the Association of Village Council Presidents and other partner 
organizations.
    In addition, several subprojects were funded as collaborative 
efforts to facilitate existing data collection efforts and fill data 
gaps, particularly in light of declining agency budgets and the need to 
provide data to support conservative fisheries management as Kuskokwim 
River Chinook salmon stocks recover.
    All projects maximized the hire and training of local residents in 
the data collection and reporting process, with a goal of maximizing 
community fisheries capacity-building throughout the projects.
Voices from the Region
    Several years ago, a lengthy effort was undertaken to assess 
regional perceptions and observations, on the Yukon River, recording 
respondent's ideas for how to best manage salmon in difficult times 
(Brown, C.L. and A. Godduhn, editors. 2015. Socioeconomic effects of 
declining salmon runs on the Yukon River. Alaska Department of Fish and 
Game, Division of Subsistence Technical Paper No. 398, Fairbanks.).
    The following bullets are derived from this research and are 
sentiments I've heard in all regions of Alaska:

   Eliminate Non-Essential Use [a reference to bycatch in the 
        commercial pollock fishery in the Bering Sea]

   Eliminate All Use [a preferred alternative to risking the 
        permanent loss of Chinook salmon from the Yukon River]

   Increase an Ecological Approach to Salmon Research 
        Management [a call for a more holistic approach to research and 
        management that includes all stages of salmon life cycles and 
        all habitats occupied during those various life stages]

   Continue Public Outreach Programs and the Development of 
        Communication Networks [an appreciation of collaboration to 
        improve mutual knowledge by both explaining scientific methods 
        and findings, and by listening to local concerns and 
        observations]

   Make Subsistence Fishing More Efficient [short subsistence 
        windows are inefficient]

   Continue to Improve Research Methods for Accurate Run 
        Enumeration and Assessments [concerns regarding the accuracy of 
        sonar-based assessments of salmon run strength and timing]

   Protect Subsistence Practices of Sharing, Barter, and 
        Customary Trade [researchers, managers, policymakers, and the 
        public need to recognize customary trade as a complicated 
        continuum of exchange practices and attend to this complication 
        in policy development]

   Continue to Research the Effects of Gear [mixed comments but 
        general concerns about what the most effective gear is for 
        reducing effects on genetic composition and drop-out rates]

   Economic Mitigation of Salmon Disaster Effects [options and 
        ideas were proposed to mitigate the economic effects of the 
        Chinook salmon disaster]

    The take-away from this research is that residents are willing to 
examine every possible avenue for addressing the declines of salmon, up 
to and including restricting themselves to protect our salmon 
resources; this has literally been put into practice in some areas when 
fishery managers announced fishing openers and residents stood down in 
protest because they knew there weren't enough fish in the river 
(Unalakleet River, 2000).
    It would be naive to pretend that illegal fishing doesn't happen in 
the BBAYK. It happens and may continue to happen while anger and 
resentment exists as they do. It is a reaction from individuals seeing 
their way of life disregarded, their voices not heard, and questions 
not answered. It is a sign of desperation, deep suspicion, and 
insecurity. When people experience scarcity and are being managed by 
government, they, out of frustration, are sometimes inclined to do 
things that are often not in the long-term interest of sustaining 
resources.
Stock Status & Threats to Sustainability of Western Alaska Stocks
    High subsistence dependence on salmon by Alaska Native Tribes 
combined with low incomes. In the AYK Region, there are over 30,000 
Alaska Natives from Athabascan, Inupiat, and Yup'ik cultural groups 
occupying 90 villages and three regional centers (Bethel, Fairbanks and 
Nome). The health and well-being of this region depends intensely on 
the annual harvests of wild salmon.
    In virtually all of these communities, salmon constitute the 
largest category of wild foods harvest, providing about 167 lbs. of 
salmon per person annually in rural Alaska (Fall, J.A. 2014. 
Subsistence in Alaska: a year 2012 update. Alaska Department of Fish 
and Game Division of Subsistence: Anchorage. http://www.adfg
.alaska.gov/static/home/subsistence/pdfs/subsistence_update_2012.pdf). 
Due to many cultural, nutritional, and logistical factors (such as 
favorable drying conditions during early summer), Chinook salmon remain 
the most important salmon species to many communities in the AYK 
watersheds.
    The continued steep decline of AYK region Chinook salmon stocks has 
resulted in a failure to meet core subsistence needs, and in some 
years, a failure to meet both key escapement goals as and subsistence 
needs. Chinook salmon stocks necessary for native subsistence fisheries 
have steeply declined, resulting in significantly reduced, or in some 
years, no subsistence harvests. Disastrous declines in Chinook salmon 
returns to western Alaska rivers within the AYK region beginning in the 
early 2000s resulted in the closure of commercial harvest of Chinook 
salmon for over a decade, numerous restrictions to subsistence 
fisheries, and a series of state and Federal disaster declarations. AYK 
Chinook salmon populations are suffering a multi-year period of very 
low productivity and abundance.
    Table 1. List of precipitous salmon population declines that have 
spurred multiple Federal disaster declarations and the designations by 
State of Alaska as stocks of concern. A ``Stock of Concern'' 
designation under the State of Alaska's ``Policy for the Management of 
Sustainable Salmon Fisheries,'' by the Alaska Board of Fisheries is a 
very important gauge of the conservation risks facing these 
populations.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


    As I discuss below there are multiple dimensions of the Chinook 
salmon decline. Specifically, the decline in the total number of 
returning adult salmon is exacerbated by two additional factors:

  (1)  declining escapement quality, especially the shrinking size of 
        female spawning salmon which results in fewer potential eggs in 
        the gravel; and

  (2)  smaller, currently less productive stocks in this period of 
        decline are more vulnerable (Figure 1).
 
 [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 
        
    Figure 1: Multiple dimensions of the AYK Region Chinook Salmon 
declines
Yukon River Chinook Salmon Declines
    During 1961 to 1997, the Yukon River Chinook salmon populations 
sustained an average combined subsistence and commercial harvest level 
of approximately 155,000 fish per year (Figure 2). The Alaska Board of 
Fisheries established in regulation the ``amounts reasonably necessary 
for subsistence'' (ANS) for Yukon River Chinook salmon as the range of 
45,500-66,704 fish. Due to the recent declines and management actions 
striving to meet critical escapement needs, the ANS has not been met 
since 2010. The 2014 subsistence harvests of Chinook salmon were 
drastically curtailed to meet escapement goals, and rebuild the stocks, 
resulting in the lowest subsistence harvest on record.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 

    Figure 2. Alaska harvest of Chinook salmon, Yukon River, 1961-2017. 
Source: Yukon River Joint Technical Committee 2017.
Kuskokwim River Chinook Salmon Declines
    From 1985 to 2010, the Kuskokwim River supported the largest 
subsistence fishery for Chinook salmon in the world. Due to the recent 
declines, subsistence harvests have fallen well below the amount 
reasonably necessary for subsistence for each of the last eight years 
(Figure 3). The 2014 Chinook salmon subsistence harvest of 11,000 fish 
was the lowest on record and 56,000 short of the minimum of what is 
necessary for subsistence. Estimated Chinook salmon harvests in 2018, 
will be less than 45 percent of the minimum amount necessary for 
subsistence in the Kuskokwim River Watershed.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    Figure 3. Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon subsistence harvests 1976-
2018. Source: ADFG, Kuskokwim Region Data.
Norton Sound Chinook Salmon Declines
    In the southern Norton Sound region, Chinook salmon subsistence 
harvests have decreased by more than 60 percent for the two watersheds 
which support important native subsistence fisheries, the Shaktoolik 
and Unalakleet rivers. Figure 4 presents the combined harvests from 
these watersheds, showing the steep decline and elimination of 
commercial harvests (1993-2000), followed by the steep sustained 
decline in subsistence harvests (2002-2011). This trend continues to 
the present.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 

    Figure 4. Norton Sound Subdistrict 5 (Shaktoolik River) and 
Subdistrict 6 (Unalakleet River) combined commercial and subsistence 
Chinook salmon harvests, 1961-2017. Source: ADFG, personal 
communication.

    A key Federal fisheries management metric demonstrating the 
collective magnitude and duration of the Chinook decline in the AYK 
region is the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council's ``Three-
System Index.'' This index, based on the sum of estimated total returns 
of Chinook Salmon to the Upper Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Unalakleet rivers, 
was established by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council 
(Council) as a measure to reduce Bering Sea pollock fishery impacts 
after years of dramatically increasing bycatch of Chinook salmon.
    A threshold of 250,000 Chinook salmon for the three-system index 
was implemented by the Council in 2016, meaning that if the total 
Chinook salmon returns in a year fall below the threshold--indicating 
declined and therefore more vulnerable Chinook salmon populations--more 
restrictive bycatch measures would be adopted for the next year's 
pollock fishery with the intent of reducing pollock fishery impacts on 
Chinook salmon rearing in the marine environment.
    Using the May 2018 revised Kuskokwim River run reconstruction 
model, ADF&G presented revised total run estimates to the NPFMC 
indicating that the 3 System Index was less than the 250,000 fish 
threshold in each of the last three years (Figure 5)(K. Howard, ADF&G, 
Memo to the NPFMC: ``Updated Relationship of 3 System Inriver Total Run 
Index and Total Western Alaska AEQ'', May 15, 2018).

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


    Figure 5: North Pacific Fisheries Management Council's ``Three-
System Index'' based on the revised estimated total returns of Chinook 
Salmon to from the Kuskokwim River plus the Canadian Yukon and 
Unalakleet Rivers in relation to the Council's established threshold of 
250,000 salmon. Source: (K. Howard, ADF&G, Memo to the NPFMC: ``Updated 
Relationship of 3 System Inriver Total Run Index and Total Western 
Alaska AEQ'', May 15, 2018; Liller, Z. W., H. Hamazaki, G. Decossas, W. 
Bechtol, M. Catalano, and N. J. Smith. 2018. Kuskokwim River Chinook 
salmon run reconstruction model revision--executive summary. Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game, Division of Commercial Fisheries, Regional 
Information Report 3A.18-04, Anchorage).

    Threats to salmon biodiversity: Declines now pose significant 
documented risks to small populations and potential loss of stock 
diversity/biocomplexity. Chinook salmon stocks in the AYK region are 
composed of over 100 discrete spawning populations, many with unique 
phenotypes and life histories. These aggregate populations--salmon 
biocomplexity--play an important role in buffering interannual 
variability of the overall stock complex and provide resilience in the 
face of environmental change (Hilborn, R., Quinn, T.P., Schindler, 
D.E., and Rogers, D.E. 2003. Biocomplexity and fisheries 
sustainability. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100(11): 6564-6568. 
doi:10.1073/pnas.1037274100. PMID:12743372.; Schindler, D.E., Hilborn, 
R., Chasco, B., Boatright, C.P., Quinn, T.P., Rogers, L.A., and 
Webster, M.S. 2010. Population diversity and the portfolio effect in an 
exploited species. Nature 465:609-613.).
    This diversity in populations produces a stabilizing effect where 
less productive populations are compensated by the most productive 
populations, thereby stabilizing annual returns to the river (Schindler 
et al., 2010). AYK Chinook salmon stocks still retain much of this 
diversity that stabilizes annual returns (Griffiths, J.R., D.E. 
Schindler, J.B.Armstrong, M.D. Scheuerell, D.C.Whited, R.A. Clark, R. 
Hilborn, C.A. Holt, S.T. Lindley, J.A. Stanford, and E.C. Volk. 2014. 
Performance of salmon fishery portfolios across western North America. 
Journal of Applied Ecology doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12341).
    However, the challenges to management and conservation of 
population diversity is that in these large complex watersheds, highly 
productive populations are harvested together with low productivity or 
low abundance stocks, which are at risk of unsustainable exploitation 
or even extinction when part of such mixed-population fisheries. Loss 
of unproductive or small populations will erode the resilience of the 
overall system because these components of the population complex can 
become the productive or dominant producers in the future, under 
different prevailing environmental conditions (Hilborn et al., 2003).
    Sustained productivity of salmon has been shown to be possible only 
if genetic diversity and population structure are maintained (NRC 
(National Research Council). 1996. Upstream: salmon and society in the 
Pacific Northwest. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.; Hilborn et 
al., 2003). However, the effective population size of some small, 
currently less productive stocks in the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and 
Unalakleet River watersheds may be approaching a threshold of concern 
for long term loss of genetic diversity (Olsen, J.B., Miller, S.J., 
Harper, K., and Wenburg, J.K. 2005. Effective population size of 
Chinook salmon in Yukon and Kuskokwim River tributaries. Arctic Yukon 
Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative Final Report. Anchorage, 
Alaska. http://www.aykssi.org/project/effective-population-size-of-
chinook-salmon-in-yukon-and-kuskokwim-river-tributaries/) found that 
discrete populations may be at risk for long term loss of genetic 
diversity as populations fall below an ``effective population size'' 
(Ne) of 500. Figure 6 illustrates the drainage-wide pattern of long 
term decline of monitored Chinook salmon populations.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


    Figure 6. Kuskokwim Watershed with 2017 Kuskokwim River Chinook 
monitored salmon tributary escapements compared to long-term average 
escapements, illustrating the magnitude and widespread pattern of 
decline facing small or currently less productive stocks. This 
comparison shows that that 77 percent of the monitored tributaries 
remain declined compared to long-term average escapements, with 15 
percent of the tributaries showing declines of greater than 50 percent. 
Source: ADFG, Commercial Fisheries Division.

    Some monitored Chinook salmon spawning populations have steeply 
declined to near or potentially below the ``minimum viable population 
size'' applicable to many salmon populations. These potentially 
vulnerable including three Kuskokwim River Tributaries (Tuluksak, 
Tatlawiksuk, and Takotna Rivers). The ADFG counted a total of 94 
Chinook salmon at the Takotna River weir monitoring site in 2013, down 
from a high of 721 in 2001.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


    Figure 7: Linear regression of Chinook salmon mean annual length 
(mm) by year for the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. (Lewis B, Grant WS, 
Brenner RE, Hamazaki T (2015) Changes in Size and Age of Chinook Salmon 
Oncorhynchus tshawytscha Returning to Alaska. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0130184. 
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0130184. pmid:26090990)
Declining size of AYK Region Chinook salmon
    The size-at-age of older Yukon and Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon 
has declined and the mean age of returning fish has declined since the 
early 1970s (Lewis B, Grant WS, Brenner RE, Hamazaki T (2015) Changes 
in Size and Age of Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha Returning to 
Alaska. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0130184. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0130184. 
pmid:26090990). Overall, a decreasing proportion of older fish and 
smaller sizes at a given age (Figure 7) have led to a reduction in the 
average size of returning females. This decline in the average size 
results in a reduction in the average number of eggs per spawning 
female, because fecundity increases with female body size.
Critical AYK Region Salmon Research & Monitoring Data Gaps
The need for an integrated marine and freshwater research and 
        monitoring to better understand the causes of Chinook salmon 
        declines.
    For most salmon populations the freshwater stages sustain over half 
of the total egg-to-adult mortality. Adult, embryonic, and juvenile 
stages are all vulnerable to changes in freshwater environmental 
conditions. Specifically, we need to better understand how changes in 
the suitability or productivity of freshwater habitat and changing 
ocean conditions (physical and biological) in the Bering Sea has caused 
reduced survival of Chinook salmon and contributed to the decline of 
AYK stocks.
The need to better understand the drivers and consequences of declining 
        size of Western Alaska Chinook salmon
    By directing research to understand the factors that altered the 
size, sex ratio, and composition of life history types in ways that 
have contributed to recent declines of AYK Chinook salmon. The large 
old female salmon that provided much of the reproductive potential of 
western Alaskan stocks are disappearing.
    Key information gaps related to declining salmon size include:

   How has size- and age-at-maturity of returning adults 
        changed among stocks, and drainage areas (Yukon and Kuskokwim 
        rivers) and has this occurred synchronously with stocks 
        elsewhere such as in Bristol Bay populations and coastwide?

   What is the relationship between size- and age-at-maturity 
        of returning adults in stocks fished by gear selective for 
        small fish versus gear selective for large fish?

   Which explanation, genetic selection or changes in 
        environmental parameters (e.g., ocean conditions), better 
        accounts for the observed changes in size- and age-at-maturity 
        of returning adults in stocks? What is the relative 
        contribution of anthropogenic and environmental variables as 
        causal mechanisms for changes in size- and age-at-maturity?

   Are fewer eggs being deposited than in the past because the 
        size- and age-at-maturity of returning adults in stocks has 
        changed? What is the relative role of different variables 
        affecting fecundity and egg deposition? Do stock-recruit 
        relationships change if they are expressed in units of eggs 
        rather than as aggregate spawning population numbers?

   How should management strategies change to accommodate the 
        changes in reproductive potential of Chinook salmon? Which data 
        are needed to monitor further changes, and which management 
        strategies will be most robust to the inevitable uncertainties 
        of the causes of the decline. Such analyses should be done by 
        independent scientists outside the management agencies to 
        ensure an objective assessment of the problem at hand.
The need to assess and proactively address risks to the most vulnerable 
        Chinook Salmon stocks in the AYK region
    We need applied research, monitoring and recovery actions for 
salmon stocks that address declined stocks to ensure that they do not 
become listed on the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
    Considering the very large information gaps combined with steep 
declines there is an urgent need to address data gaps related to those 
salmon populations facing declining Viable Salmonid Population 
parameters that could potentially lead to ESA listing of stocks which 
are of greatest importance to subsistence fisheries. Each of the major 
western Alaska rivers support dozens of individual spawning stocks 
that, in aggregate, make up the runs to the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Nushagak 
and other large rivers. This collection of populations within each 
river provides stability to the overall runs but is also critical for 
producing fish for isolated villages throughout the watersheds.
    Recovering and managing at-risk stocks requires an understanding of 
the genetic and demographic thresholds for population viability as well 
as the best approaches to risk management. Key information gaps for 
sustainable salmon management include:

  1.  Assessing the population viability of smaller currently less 
        productive stocks in the region including assessing risk of 
        overharvest and extinction;

  2.  Developing approaches to reduce these threats through the 
        implementation of rebuilding actions and risk averse harvest 
        strategies.

    Addressing this information gap is critically important for a 
number of reasons:

   Proactive measures to conserve small viable stocks are less 
        costly and more effective than later measures to address stocks 
        at the brink of extinction.

   The AYK region Chinook salmon stocks overall are in a period 
        of low productivity, driving some less productive stocks to new 
        lows.

   Majority of harvest occurs in mixed stock fisheries where 
        the productivity of strong stocks can mask proportionally 
        greater impacts to weak or small stocks.

   Some stocks which are weak producers under one climate 
        regime may emerge as major producers under another regime, 
        highlighting the importance of conserving salmon biocomplexity 
        for long term resilience (Hilborn et al., 2003).

   Although small stocks contribute to biodiversity and are 
        most at risk from habitat change, these stocks represent as 
        small proportion of the stocks receiving annual monitoring.

   The focus of management (due to funding shortages) has 
        shifted from tributary escapement goals to a single drainage-
        wide escapement goal creating greater potential for weak stocks 
        to be overharvested or extirpated without timely detection. A 
        critical information gap is in understanding the consequences 
        of management assuming that each river is a homogeneous 
        collection of fish, when in fact, it is a collection of 
        biologically diverse populations.
Research and monitoring to assess the impact of climate change on 
        salmon and salmon habitat
    Western Alaska is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth and 
recent trajectories of change are predicted to continue for at least 
the next century. With climate warming comes a loss of snowpack, 
increased winter flooding, increased erosion, and increased intensities 
of summer droughts and heat waves. All of these climate-induced changes 
threaten the productivity and suitability of salmon habitat in western 
Alaska rivers. Climate change will also alter the productivity of the 
nearshore ocean and the Bering Sea. In aggregate, changing climate will 
fundamentally change the nature of salmon habitat in western Alaska and 
produce changes in population abundance and productivity. New science 
and monitoring is required to understand the mechanisms and 
consequences of climate change on salmon and their habitat, and to 
successfully management these fish in a warmer future.
    Particularly pressing science and information needs include:

   Monitoring of river flows and thermal regimes to understand 
        how these change in response to changing air temperature and 
        precipitation patterns. Currently there is almost no dedicated 
        environmental monitoring throughout any of the major rivers in 
        western Alaska

   Monitoring for temperature-mediated disease outbreaks that 
        affect both juvenile fish during rearing and adult fish during 
        migration and spawning

   Monitoring of physical and biological conditions in the 
        nearshore ocean to understand how climate change is affecting 
        early marine survival of salmon smolts

   Assessment of changes in migration timing of adults and 
        smolts in response to changing environmental changes. What is 
        the magnitude of these changes? How are changes in migration 
        best monitored? How should in-season management of salmon adapt 
        to changing migration timing?

   Quantifying the effects of changing climate on stock 
        productivity and, therefore, management reference points for 
        sustaining production from major rivers.

   Evaluation of alternative management strategies for 
        providing the most robust approaches for managing fishery 
        resources in a future with persistent and inevitable 
        uncertainties about climate effects on fish populations.
Loss of key monitoring projects creates additional critical data gaps
    For example, a number of critical long-term monitoring projects on 
the Kuskokwim River--over 60 percent of the high-quality salmon 
counting projects--have no secure funding from either state and Federal 
agencies for 2019 forward (Figure 8).

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    Figure 8: Map of Kuskokwim River salmon monitoring projects using 
weirs to count returning adult salmon showing long-term projects with & 
without funding for 2019 onward.

    In rivers such as those in western Alaska, which are vast, complex 
and remote, there will always be substantial uncertainties about the 
status of the stocks, the causes of population changes, and the 
consequences of different management actions for achieving the multiple 
objectives of different stakeholders. It should be required that 
population models and agency management strategies are periodically and 
independently reviewed as it is not common practice for management 
agencies to perform thorough evaluations of how robust their management 
actions are to these uncertainties. Ongoing climate change will only 
add to uncertainties about the effectiveness of different management 
strategies for sustaining populations and allowing a safe level of 
harvest.
    Addressing key information needs in the region is made more 
challenging by the steep decline in funding awards to Alaska state and 
tribes from an existing NOAA/NMFS program which has the potential to 
assist.
PROBLEM: Significant decline in funding to Alaska over the past decade 
        under NOAA's Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) 
        Program
   The Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) was 
        established by Congress in 2000 to address and reverse the 
        declines of Pacific salmon and steelhead by supporting 
        conservation and recovery efforts in California, Oregon, 
        Washington, Idaho, and Alaska.

   The priority of the program is to fund projects and 
        activities that are ``necessary for conservation of salmon and 
        steelhead populations that are listed as threatened or 
        endangered, or identified by a State as at-risk to be so-
        listed, for maintaining populations necessary for exercise of 
        tribal treaty fishing rights or native subsistence fishing, or 
        for conservation of Pacific coastal salmon and steelhead 
        habitat.'' (emphasis added)

    NOAA's PCSRF recipients in Alaska consist of:

   State of Alaska's Sustainable Salmon Fund

   Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Tribal Consortium (consisting of the 
        tribes represented by the Tanana Chief Conference, Association 
        of Village Council Presidents and Kawerak Inc.)

    Despite relative stability in congressional funding levels, the 
share of the funding allocated to Alaska's PCSRF recipients by NOAA 
administrators has dropped from 25 percent of the total in 2007 to 7 
percent in 2016 & 2017 since the competitive grants program began in 
2007. (Figure 9)

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


    Figure 9: A clear trend of precipitously declined funding to Alaska 
over the past decade.

    The PCSRF is almost exclusively focused on investing on ESA listed 
stocks. Clearly there is an imminent need for a program which 
proactively addresses salmon declines in advance of any potential or 
actual ESA listings.
AYK SSI: A Successful, Unique, Collaborative Solution
    Salmon runs of the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region have been 
critical to the survival of the people and wildlife for thousands of 
years. Over eighty communities in the region depend heavily on the 
harvest of salmon, which forms the foundation of their subsistence diet 
and their cultural identity. However, dramatic declines in salmon runs 
across the AYK region over the past two decades have led to 
restrictions on subsistence fishing and closure of many commercial 
fisheries. As a result, harvest restrictions have created tremendous 
hardships for the communities in a region with the highest subsistence 
dependence on salmon in the state, coupled with some of the lowest 
incomes in the state.
    In response to these declines, BSFA and regional Native 
organizations invited state and Federal agencies to create the Arctic-
Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative (AYK SSI), a proactive 
science-based program working cooperatively to identify and address the 
critical salmon research needs facing the AYK region.
    Created via a Memorandum of Understanding in 2002, this innovative 
partnership includes BSFA, the AYK Tribal Consortium consisting of the 
Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP), Tanana Chiefs 
Conference (TCC) and Kawerak, Inc., as well as ADF&G, National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, and the USFWS.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


    The AYK SSI is governed by an eight-member Steering Committee (SC) 
and advised by a six-member Scientific Technical Committee (STC). 
Current roster of committee members:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Steering Committee             Scientific Technical Committee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alaska Department of Fish and Game   Christian Zimmerman, Ph.D., Chair
John Linderman, Commercial           United States Geological Survey
 Fisheries Division                  Alaska Science Center
Lisa Olsen, Division of Subsistence
 
Association of Village Council       Chuck Krueger, Ph.D., Vice-Chair
 Presidents                          Michigan State University
Jennifer Hooper                      Center for Systems Integration and
                                      Sustainability
 
Bering Sea Fishermen's Association   Milo Adkison, Ph.D.
Karen Gillis, Chair                  University of Alaska Fairbanks
                                     School of Fisheries and Ocean
                                      Sciences
 
Kawerak, Inc.                        Caroline Brown, Ph.D.
Rose Atuk-Fosdick                    Alaska Department of Fish and Game
                                     Division of Subsistence
 
NOAA Fisheries, Auke Bay             Andrew Munro
 Laboratories                        Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Peter Hagen                          Commercial Fisheries Division
 
Tanana Chiefs Conference             Daniel Schindler, Ph.D.
Gale K. Vick                         University of Washington
                                     School of Aquatic and Fishery
                                      Sciences
 
United States Fish & Wildlife
 Service
Aaron Martin, Vice-Chair
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The AYK SSI is truly unique for Alaska and different from other 
approaches in several important ways.
AYK SSI provides a cooperative forum for addressing research needs
    The uniqueness of our program has been recognized as, potentially, 
the largest example of co-management of research funding addressing 
salmon within the Pacific Rim and is one of the largest successful 
experiments in the co-management of fisheries and wildlife research in 
North America.
AYK SSI provides coordination and avoids duplication of effort
    Projects funded through the AYK SSI address high priority 
hypotheses and critical uncertainties drawn from our AYK SSI Salmon 
Research & Restoration Plan (RRP). The aim of this long-range, 
strategic science plan is to identify the conceptual frameworks, 
research themes and research priorities needed to guide research funded 
through the AYK SSI. Development of the RRP helps to ensure that 
available funds are spent wisely and avoids duplication. The RRP draws 
on the best available science to identify effective ways to investigate 
and understand the complexity of marine and freshwater ecosystems which 
support these salmon stocks; identifies significant knowledge gaps, and 
establishes research and monitoring priorities that complement other 
relevant programs in the region without duplication of effort. In doing 
so, the RRP provides a science-based roadmap guiding the AYK SSI's 
current and future proposal solicitations and ensures that available 
funds target the highest priority issues and questions. (Arctic-Yukon-
Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative (AYK SSI). 2006. Arctic-Yukon-
Kuskokwim Salmon Research and Restoration Plan. Bering Sea Fishermen's 
Association, Anchorage, AK.)

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


AYK SSI completes implementation-ready AYK CHINOOK SALMON RESEARCH 
        ACTION PLAN to guide research in a coordinated, collaborative 
        way
    In 2013, responding to the disastrous decline of Chinook salmon in 
the AYK region, the specially appointed AYK SSI Chinook Salmon Expert 
Panel released its research blueprint for addressing failing Western 
Alaska salmon populations entitled: ``Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Chinook 
Salmon Action Plan: Evidence of Decline of Chinook Salmon Populations 
and Recommendations for Future Research.'' Our expert panel members 
included scientists from two divisions within the Alaska Department of 
Fish and Game, NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest 
Service and several universities. For each of the possible drivers of 
decline, the Chinook Salmon Action Plan provides a description, 
discussion of the biological plausibility, a summary of the evidence 
available, and a set of research themes and questions to guide future 
research. (Schindler, D.E., Krueger, C., P. Bisson, M. Bradford, B. 
Clark, J. Conitz, K. Howard, M. Jones, J. Murphy, K. Myers, M. 
Scheuerell, E. Volk, and J. Winton. 2013. Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim 
Chinook Salmon Research Action Plan: Evidence of Decline of Chinook 
Salmon Populations and Recommendations for Future Research. Prepared 
for the AYK Sustainable Salmon Initiative Anchorage, AK). v + 70 pp. 
Available at https://www.aykssi.org/aykssi-chinook-salmon-research-
action-plan-2013/)

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]



AYK SSI develops a state-of-the-art assessment of salmon stocks and 
        management practices for the AYK region
    Pacific Salmon: Ecology and Management of Western Alaska's 
Populations is a timely book, sponsored by the AYK SSI and published by 
the American Fisheries Society. It covers the freshwater, estuarine, 
and marine ecology and management of salmon and is the first-ever 
comprehensive appraisal of the region's salmon resources. Containing 61 
chapters, the book assesses the ecological processes that cause changes 
in salmon populations; describes the effects of varying salmon runs on 
rural communities; reviews state, Federal and international management 
of salmon fisheries in the region; and examines emerging themes at the 
nexus of salmon ecology and management in the AYK region.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    The book includes special sections on the economic, social, and 
cultural significance of salmon, and on governance associated with 
salmon management. Reviews of several other fisheries such as those in 
Washington and Oregon, provide lessons learned elsewhere conclude with 
recommendations for future research to promote a better understanding 
of the region's fisheries. (Krueger, C. C., and C. E. Zimmerman, 
editors. 2009. Pacific salmon: ecology and management of western 
Alaska's populations. American Fisheries Society Symposium 70, 
Bethesda, Maryland.)
    The AYK SSI has created an important legacy of improved salmon 
science and conservation in an otherwise data-poor region with limited 
scientific capacity. Information from our high priority monitoring and 
applied research projects has contributed to:

  3  An improved understanding by management agencies of the complex 
        relationships between salmon and their freshwater, nearshore 
        and marine environments; and

  3  Improved management and recovery of declined salmon populations to 
        better provide sustainable harvest opportunities for 
        subsistence uses.

Our research addresses the full salmon life cycle; integrated marine 
and freshwater research
        Gravel to gravel research focus, the AYK SSI has made important 
        contributions by maintaining its focus on identifying and 
        addressing drivers of decline throughout the entire salmon 
        lifecycle. The AYK SSI is the only program in this large region 
        focused on applied research, conservation, and restoration 
        activities that span the freshwater--estuarine--marine habitats 
        that salmon use throughout their life cycle.

Capacity-Building is a major goal of the AYK SSI's funded research
        Our approach to conducting research includes an integrated 
        program to expand the capacity of Native and rural 
        organizations to participate in and lead the salmon research we 
        fund. Principal investigators and their organizations are 
        highly encouraged to demonstrate the ability to create and/or 
        maintain effective relationships with local communities/
        organizations and a commitment to capacity-building.

    We recommend establishing a funding mechanism for the AYK SSI which 
provides a Native, state and Federal science-based partnership 
undertaking collaborative salmon research informing the rebuilding and 
management of declined stocks. Our collaborative partnership has an 
extensive track record of applied research and restoration activities.
    I'm grateful for the opportunity to address you and I look forward 
to working with you to rebuild and maintain healthy and sustainable 
western Alaskan salmon stocks.

    Senator Sullivan. Great. Thank you, Ms. Gillis. Ms. 
Hoffman.

          STATEMENT OF KATRINA HOFFMAN, M.S., PRESIDENT AND 
              CEO, PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND SCIENCE CENTER

    Ms. Hoffman. Good morning, Senator. My name is Katrina 
Hoffman. I'm the President and CEO of the Prince William Sound 
Science Center, which is based in Cordova, Alaska.
    Environmental conditions define many aspects of salmon life 
history, and therefore it's important to measure those 
conditions in order to evaluate how they drive salmon 
populations and salmon productivity. Ocean productivity is key 
to fisheries productivity.
    Prince William Sound is home to a salmon industry that's 
typically worth about 15 million dollars per year in ex-vessel 
value. It's also the nursery to several hundred million salmon 
smolts that enter each year from the streams and hatcheries 
around this periphery.
    The environment that salmon smolts encounter is critical to 
their life history as they proceed to the Gulf of Alaska. We 
know that environment is changing. The North Pacific in general 
warming at about a fifth of a degree per decade, and we see 
that signal repeated in Prince William Sound.
    At the same time, the glaciers and ice sheets that surround 
the Sound are melting and the ocean near those glaciers and 
glacially influenced rivers are cooling and becoming fresher, 
and in some cases more acidic. We don't have a good 
understanding of what this will do to the marine ecosystem, 
including salmon populations and productivity. Changes in ocean 
chemistry, such as ocean acidification, may even influence the 
ability of salmon to home to their natal streams.
    From approximately 2014 to 2016, we did see the North 
Pacific experience a marine heat wave that you have heard 
referred to as ``the blob.'' We saw plankton that are more 
common in Oregon and California becoming present in Alaskan 
waters, toxin-producing algae blooms up here, and there was a 
huge die-off of marine birds in Prince William Sound.
    We later saw what may be the cascading effects of that blob 
in our fisheries. As Commissioner Cotten mentioned, the 
precipitous decline of Pacific cod populations, the 2016 pink 
salmon run crash, and this year some salmon fisheries in 
Alaska, including the Copper River fishery, experienced low 
returns of sockeye salmon, which resulted in restricted fishing 
opportunity for our communities.
    Recently, some of our scientists participated in a two-year 
working group on ocean and climate effects on salmon. In 
reviewing available data, they detected effects of ocean 
temperature and pink salmon numbers on productivity of sockeye 
salmon populations in the Gulf of Alaska. Their analysis 
suggests that sockeye exposed to warm coastal waters like the 
blob in their first year in the ocean were more likely to 
suffer from competition with other salmon species.
    The team also documented slower growth rates of several 
populations of sockeye salmon in the Gulf of Alaska during 
years influenced by the blob. In 2016 we conducted a pilot 
study to examine at-sea foraging strategies of natural-origin 
and hatchery-origin pink salmon that returned to Prince William 
Sound. We did this using staple isotopes, which is a way of 
evaluating their food web interactions.
    Food web interactions are important. They can shape salmon 
body size, overall quality and survival and spawning success. 
This topic is a major knowledge gap, and it would be valuable 
to examine in future studies, including high and low run years 
for pink salmon, as well as sockeye and chum salmon that return 
to the same regions.
    We are also collaborating on a study that looks at the 
number of days that adult pink salmon are alive and spawning in 
streams. This is with collaborators at UAF. Stream life is 
thought to be positively correlated to reproductive success. 
And this study will assess whether there are differences 
between salmon that are hatchery and natural in origin and 
whether those differences are important or can be detected in 
any way.
    Sockeye salmon returning to the Copper River are getting 
smaller. This winter the science center researchers will 
initiate a pilot study to explore whether there are trade-offs 
among sockeye salmon that only swim a short distance upriver 
versus those that migrate a longer distance. In other words, 
habitat migration distance potentially affect fat stores, 
pathogen loads and reproductive fitness. Those relationships 
are not defined.
    Stressful environments have been shown in some studies to 
magnify the impacts of infectious agents on fish populations. 
This winter our staff will also use molecular techniques to 
measure whether and to what extent Copper River sockeye possess 
certain pathogens that could affect their migration success or 
spawning success. Very little of this type of work has been 
done with salmon populations anywhere in Alaska.
    With funding from the fishing industry, we provide near 
realtime data to ADF&G. Our regional seafood development 
association for the Copper River as well as NOAA have funded us 
to deploy a pair of imaging sonars in the lower Copper River. 
We use these sonars to count salmon, and if during the start of 
the Copper River run, they complement the ADF&G installation 
several miles upriver. For fish, it's a multi-day run before 
they hit the ADF&G sonars, and by providing data on salmon 
escapement that was collected closer to the mouth of the river, 
the state fisheries managers have the option to use our data 
along with their own when deciding when to provide fishing 
opportunities and for how long.
    As you know, Copper River salmon is the first major salmon 
fishery in our state each year that delivers to market. The 
salmon are very valuable. And each fishing opportunity has the 
potential to return hundreds of thousands of dollars to over a 
million dollars to our community alone.
    So improving fishing enumeration methods can help maintain 
sustainable salmon populations while improving economic 
opportunities for coastal Alaskan communities.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Hoffman follows:]

   Prepared Statement of Katrina Hoffman, President and CEO, Prince 
  William Sound Science Center and Executive Director, Prince William 
                   Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute
Introduction
    Good morning Chairman Sullivan, Ranking Member Baldwin, and Members 
of the Subcommittee. Since our founding in 1989, the Cordova, Alaska-
based Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute (dba Prince 
William Sound Science Center, and referred to as ``the Science Center'' 
or PWSSC) has focused the vast majority of our work on ecosystem 
research and science education in our heavily spill-affected region. We 
are the only place-based research and education institute on Prince 
William Sound, and we now have three decades of experience studying the 
region. In our first 29 years, the organization has generated more than 
$90 million in direct expenditures related to our work. We are driven 
by our vision of communities that maintain socioeconomic resilience 
among healthy ecosystems.
    Cordova remains economically the hardest hit community in the wake 
of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Numerous species have yet to recover 
from the spill, and environmental conditions, including climate change, 
are impacting our region--including salmon--in unprecedented and 
unanticipated ways. To fully understand these changes and to help 
management agencies and communities adjust appropriately, more long-
term research must be conducted in Alaska.
    Conclusions from our current research:

   Rapid environmental changes are occurring in Alaska. 
        Unprecedented ocean conditions have characterized the northeast 
        Pacific Ocean in recent years including anomalously warm sea-
        surface temperatures 2-3 +C above the long-term average, known 
        as the ``Warm Blob'' or ``the Blob''.

   We know that Prince William Sound is changing: the North 
        Pacific Ocean in general is warming at about a fifth of a 
        degree per decade, we see that signal in the waters flowing 
        into the Sound from the Gulf of Alaska.

   Glaciers and ice sheets that surround the perimeter of 
        Prince William Sound are melting at rates as high as anywhere 
        else in the world--enough that we see marine waters near those 
        glaciers becoming cooler and fresher as a result of the runoff. 
        This impacts the typical function of the marine ecosystem.

   The recent marine heat wave, colloquially referred to as 
        ``the Blob,'' gives us a hint of what we can expect as the 
        ocean continues to warm. We saw big changes in the surface 
        ocean: productivity was down, nutrients were not used up by 
        living organisms; plankton that are more common off Oregon and 
        California became prevalent in the northern Gulf of Alaska; 
        toxin-producing algae blooms appeared; and there were huge die 
        offs in marine birds and mammals. Recent, unexpected declines 
        in Alaska fisheries, including collapsing Pacific cod 
        populations and historically low returns of salmon in the 
        region, may be cascading effects of the Blob.

   Our research suggests that fish exposed to anomalously warm 
        coastal waters in their first year in the ocean made them more 
        likely to suffer effects from competitive interactions with 
        pink salmon. We have also documented slower growth rate (as 
        measured on scales) of several key populations of sockeye 
        salmon in the Gulf of Alaska during the years influenced by the 
        Blob.

   At-sea food web interactions among natural- and hatchery-
        origin salmon are important as they can shape salmon body size, 
        overall quality, and survival and spawning success. This topic 
        is a major knowledge gap. We are keen to extend our pilot work 
        with future studies that will examine similar relationships 
        between at-sea foraging and performance correlates, such as 
        body condition, migratory timing, timing of residence in 
        spawning streams, and investment in reproduction, among 
        natural- and hatchery-origin Pink Salmon over multiple years 
        including both high and low run years for Pink Salmon, as well 
        as for Chum and Sockeye Salmon that return to the Prince 
        William Sound region.

   We feel that further study of these issues and reduction of 
        these knowledge gaps is highly relevant to the interests and 
        needs of a variety of salmon stakeholders in the State of 
        Alaska.

   In addition, we believe a new program of research focused on 
        ecosystem shifts, especially those associated with the loss of 
        glacial ice and subsequent ecosystem impacts, including those 
        affecting salmon, is necessary for our region.
Ecosystem Shifts in the Face of Climate Change
    Climate change is affecting ecosystems and salmon in Alaska in a 
variety of ways. One of the most dramatic changes is associated with 
the loss of glacial ice. The most obvious change is the exposure of new 
terrain as the glaciers recede. Less obvious, but just as important, 
are changes in freshwater flow, water temperatures, water chemistry, 
water clarity, and nutrient supplies downstream of the glaciers. The 
ecosystems from glaciers to the ocean thus have to adapt to the loss of 
ice. There is a recolonization of the land by a succession of plants. 
New lakes, rivers, and streams form that are eventually inhabited by 
macroinvertebrates and fish, including, potentially, salmon. As 
glaciers disappear, the source of water shifts from melting ice to snow 
melt and rain. This leads to altered stream and river flow regimes. The 
changes in streamflow affect organisms reliant on that water. Changes 
in freshwater input, minerals, and nutrients carried by the streams or 
released by glaciers also have impacts on ocean properties and ocean 
productivity due to changes in ocean chemistry and the physical 
structure and interactions of different seawater layers.
    In the northern Gulf of Alaska region, including Prince William 
Sound and the Copper River basin, we have glaciers in all stages of 
loss, and changes in the cryosphere are driving changes in ecosystem 
function and ocean productivity. For example, the Columbia Glacier is a 
rapidly retreating tidewater glacier that is exposing miles of new land 
each decade. We also have hanging glaciers in which the ice is nearly 
gone, resulting in altered freshwater flow regimes as streams become 
more influenced by rainfall or rapid melting, flooding, and scouring. 
The human communities in the region are highly dependent on natural 
resources, particularly salmon, that must adapt to the changing 
environment. Changes in ocean chemistry may even influence the ability 
of salmon to home to their natal streams, and more acid ocean 
conditions complicate the matter further.
    It would be beneficial to support further research focused on these 
ecosystem shifts, including those associated with the loss of glacial 
ice. While this is a very large and complex problem, there are many 
aspects that can be separated that will allow for a series of focused 
research projects to address the theme in an integrated fashion. Even 
when focusing on a single species, such as salmon, there is much to 
learn. The opening of new streams and lakes provide new spawning and 
rearing habitat. How long does it take for those new habitats to 
support new fish runs? How does the shift in source of freshwater 
affect the survival of salmon? Does salmon run timing have to shift 
with changes in the timing of river outflow cues? There are many 
unanswered questions. Additional knowledge gained can help humans 
continue to utilize the resources in a sustainable manner while 
adjusting to novel conditions.
Environmental Drivers
    The deep waters of the Gulf of Alaska are the northern extent of a 
huge global conveyor belt that takes about 1,000 years to cycle. This 
source of seawater, combined with a constant rain of organic material 
from the surface, results in nutrient-rich waters upwelled to the 
surface. The nutrients drive the productive marine ecosystems of the 
Gulf of Alaska region, which in turn drive the many fisheries that are 
a cornerstone of the Alaska economy. Those deep waters are, however, 
lacking in one element, iron, a micronutrient that is required by 
marine producers to take up other nutrients and grow. Iron comes from 
the weathering of rock, and is present in high concentrations in the 
freshwater that washes out into the coastal margin of the Gulf of 
Alaska. In the central Gulf of Alaska, far from shore, iron must be 
delivered by atmospheric transport of aerosol dust. One potentially 
large source of aerosol iron from Alaska is glacial flour: the fine, 
powdery, crushed rock produced by ice grinding on bedrock. Wind storms 
are able to carry that glacial flour hundreds of miles out into the 
North Pacific, into the iron-limited region. Such storms are visible in 
satellite imagery, and in our region, the dust deposited from the 
Copper River basin into the northern Gulf of Alaska has a measurable 
effect on ocean productivity. The iron-rich dust provides an injection 
of nutrients that can support more robust growth of plankton, known as 
primary productivity. These plankton are the food upon which some 
salmon prey. There is a delicate interplay between ice, rock, weather, 
and water that actually supports marine life and salmon fisheries.
    We know that the landscapes of our watersheds are changing. 
Glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking and receding; colonizing plants 
are moving into those new habitats. Those landscape changes will 
manifest in the ocean as a change in iron transport, and thus marine 
productivity. With the initial retreat of glaciers, as we are now 
seeing, we might expect an initial increase in iron transport as 
glaciers recede and glacial flour is mobilized. But as those colonizing 
plants move in, the glacial flour will become bound up in soils, and 
iron transport will decrease. It is unknown what the impact of this 
change will be on marine productivity.
    Prince William Sound is the nursery to several hundred million 
salmon smolts that enter it each year from the numerous streams and 
hatcheries around its periphery. The environment that salmon smolts 
encounter is critical to their life history as they proceed to the Gulf 
of Alaska to continue their life cycle. We know that Prince William 
Sound is changing: the North Pacific in general is warming at about a 
fifth of a degree per decade. We see that signal in the waters flowing 
into Prince William Sound from the Gulf of Alaska. At the same time, 
the glaciers and ice sheets that ring the Sound are melting, at rates 
as high as anywhere else in the world--enough that we see marine waters 
near those glacier rivers cooling and becoming fresher. We suspect that 
this is changing the way the surface oceanography in Prince William 
Sound works, but don't have a good understanding of what this will do 
to the marine ecosystem and salmon productivity. Our oceanographic 
efforts right now are focused on observing Prince William Sound as it 
changes, using a combination of vessel surveys and automated robotic 
observations. We are watching how changes in the physical environment 
are changing the way nutrients move around, how material and energy 
moves through the food web, and how the major players in the upper 
trophic levels are responding to these changes.
Observing Marine Ecosystems
    We are now able to observe marine ecosystems at unprecedented 
scales. Every spring, PWSSC deploys a robotic profiling float in the 
middle of Prince William Sound. It measures temperature, salinity, 
oxygen, nutrients, and plankton concentrations from a depth of 200 feet 
to the surface, taking measurements every two inches. The moored 
profiler does that twice per day. If ocean conditions permit, it will 
transmit some of that data after every profile. With that profiler we 
are able to watch the annual cycle of marine productivity in near real 
time. We see all the nutrients in the surface layer become depleted as 
the single-celled phytoplankton that drive the base of the marine food 
web use it up. We are able to watch as different types of zooplankton 
grazers come and go. Some are important food for species higher up in 
the food web--the cod, salmon, herring and halibut that consume 
plankton directly as young fish, not to mention the many other fish, 
birds and mammals that prey on these plankton consumers. The technology 
now exists to do this at much larger scales--to monitor the nutrients 
and productivity that makes up the base of our extraordinarily 
productive marine ecosystem. Understanding this base of the food web 
gives us a picture of how much of that productivity will be available 
to the players higher up in the food web--things like salmon, that in 
part drive our region's economy. Tracking every fish in the sea is 
hard; tracking how much food is available to them is much easier.
    The recent marine heat wave, colloquially referred to as ``the 
Blob,'' gives us a hint of what we can expect as the ocean continues to 
warm. We saw big changes in the surface ocean: productivity was down, 
nutrients were not used up; plankton that are more common off Oregon 
and California became prevalent; toxin-producing algae blooms appeared; 
there were huge die-offs in marine birds in Prince William Sound. We 
are now seeing what are likely cascading effects of ``the Blob'' in our 
fisheries: Pacific cod populations have collapsed, and there have been 
historically low returns of salmon in the regions impacted by the Blob.
Salmon Ecology
    Via the NCEAS SASAP Working Group (Ocean/Climate effects on 
salmon), we have detected strong effects of ocean temperature (during 
1st year in the ocean) and densities of pink salmon in the ocean on 
productivity of sockeye populations in the Gulf of Alaska. Further, we 
found an interaction between these two variables, suggesting that fish 
exposed to anomalously warm coastal waters in their first year in the 
ocean made them more likely to suffer effects from competitive 
interactions with pink salmon. We also documented slower growth rate 
(as measured on scales) of several key populations of sockeye salmon in 
the Gulf of Alaska during the years influenced by the Blob.
    In addition, we have conducted research via funding we obtained in 
2016 through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for a one-season 
pilot study focused on examining the at-sea foraging strategies of 
natural- and hatchery-origin adult Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) 
returning to the Prince William Sound region of Alaska using stable 
isotope analysis. This study was an initial effort that extended the 
work being conducted by the Alaska Hatchery Research Program (AHRP) to 
begin developing a mechanistic perspective regarding Pink Salmon 
fitness variation by considering at sea foraging determinants of 
performance in migration and reproduction. Our results indicate that in 
2015, a high run Pink Salmon year, strong relationships existed between 
muscle '13C and '15N stable isotope values and the body size of Pink 
Salmon, with hatchery-origin Pink Salmon being smaller than natural-
origin fish. However, relationships were not evident between marine 
foraging and body condition (size corrected body weight) of either 
natural- or hatchery-origin Pink Salmon. On-going analysis is examining 
relationships between tissue-specific stable isotope values and 
investment in reproduction such as gonad weight, fecundity and egg 
size.
    Additionally, this pilot study begins to fill a major knowledge gap 
regarding overlap in at-sea food preferences by natural- and hatchery-
origin Pink Salmon as density dependent impacts of ocean ranching 
practices in Alaska, particularly those occurring at-sea, have not been 
extensively considered and are not specifically addressed by the AHRP 
research program. At-sea food web interactions among natural- and 
hatchery-origin salmon are important as they can shape salmon body 
size, overall quality, and survival and spawning success. This topic is 
a major knowledge gap and PWSSC researchers are keen to extend our 
pilot work with future studies that will examine similar relationships 
between at-sea foraging and performance correlates, i.e., body 
condition, migratory timing, timing of residence in spawning streams, 
and investment in reproduction, among natural- and hatchery-origin Pink 
Salmon over multiple years including both high and low run years for 
Pink Salmon, but also similar relationships for sympatric Chum and 
Sockeye Salmon returning to the PWS region. Salmon food web 
relationships were recently highlighted as key, needed information. 
Thus, we feel studies such as ours are highly relevant for filling 
knowledge gaps that are currently of interest to a variety of salmon 
stakeholders in the State of Alaska.
    Through funding support by Alaska INBRE (Idea Network of Biomedical 
Research Excellence) at the University of Alaska, PWSSC researchers are 
currently engaged in a pilot study that is exploring ecological 
dynamics between reductions in the body size of adult Sockeye Salmon 
(O. nerka) returning to spawn in the Copper River, Alaska, and energy 
density, pathogen loads, and reproductive fitness trade-offs among 
short and long distance Sockeye migrants.
    Rapid environmental changes are occurring in Alaska. Unprecedented 
ocean-climate conditions have characterized the northeast Pacific Ocean 
in recent years including anomalously warm sea-surface temperatures 2-3 
+C above the long-term average. The impacts of ocean acidification are 
exacerbated in Alaska. In the Gulf of Alaska region, cold water 
temperatures and significant freshwater input from glacial discharge 
can influence alkalinity and carbonate ion concentrations in seawater, 
which has important implications for the structure and function of 
marine food webs. Stressful environments can magnify the impacts of 
infectious agents on fish populations. Recent scientific reviews 
highlight the increasing concern for understanding how environmental 
change might alter the severity or distribution of diseases in aquatic 
animals. It is notable that research focused on infectious agents has 
not been widely conducted on Alaskan salmon stocks, despite extensive 
hatchery aquaculture practices and the importance of robust salmon 
populations to Alaskan livelihoods.
    To this end, PWSSC researchers are conducting pilot research that 
is a first of its kind for the State of Alaska by employing a recently 
developed, high throughput, molecular microfluidics approach to 
quantify globally-significant pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, 
fungal and protozoan parasites in Sockeye salmon of the Copper River. 
Copper River Sockeye are an economic cornerstone of the commercial 
salmon fishery in southcentral Alaska and also sustain active 
subsistence fisheries in the upper reaches of the watershed, some of 
which are moderately enhanced by the Gulkana hatchery. Since the mid-
1990s, there has been a notable long-term decline in the size at age of 
adult Sockeye returning to the Copper River, with marked declines in 
body size occurring in recent years (2015-2018). Recent reductions in 
body size of returning adult Copper River Sockeye has coincided with an 
unprecedented oceanic heatwave throughout the northeast Pacific Ocean. 
Body size and energy density of adult Sockeye have been negatively 
related to warmer sea surface temperatures during the last year of 
ocean residency, and recent studies have confirmed growth impacts to 
Sockeye due to density-dependent competition at-sea. Research on salmon 
in British Columbia, Canada, has already revealed striking 
relationships between physiological variation and survival during 
spawning migration by Sockeye of the Fraser River, possibly as a result 
of viral infection. Thus, our pilot research aims to couple 
physiological variation in returning Copper River Sockeye, with 
information on the diversity and loads of pathogens that these fish 
carry to understand mechanisms contributing to spawning migration 
success and performance. This initial work on salmon pathogens will 
lead to important future research to be conducted on all salmon species 
in Alaska and at various life stages from young emerging in freshwater 
systems, to adults during their ocean residency and return spawning 
migration.
    Finally, we are looking at reproductive traits in wild and hatchery 
pink salmon in PWS via a University of Alaska-Fairbanks collaborative 
study. In two streams in western PWS, we are quantifying stream life 
(the number of days adult pink salmon are alive and spawning in 
streams) and determining if there are differences among individuals 
that differ in their origin (natural- or hatchery-origin). Stream life 
is thought to be positively related to reproductive fitness. We 
conducted a pilot project in a single stream in 2017, and executed a 
full field program in 2018 in two separate streams. Results will be 
included in a UAF thesis. This work is important in that it may 
elucidate mechanisms that could explain fitness differences, and thus 
complements the larger AHRP effort.
Other Work
Salmon Monitoring For Management
    The Science Center, in collaboration with the Copper River/Prince 
William Sound Marketing Association (a Regional Seafood Development 
Association funded by Area E permit holders) and with recent support 
from the NOAA Saltonstall-Kennedy program, deploys a pair of imaging 
sonars in the lower Copper River delta to count salmon during the start 
of the Copper River run. The sonars complement ADF&G sonars several 
miles up river and give state fisheries managers near real-time 
information on salmon escapement that they can use when deciding on the 
timing and duration of fisheries opportunities. Copper River salmon are 
the first major salmon fishery to market, and early season fish are 
exceedingly valuable. Each fishing opportunity generally means several 
hundred thousand, to over a million dollars added to the local economy 
alone.
ADF&G AHRP (H-W) Project
    PWSSC just completed the 6th year of field sampling under contract 
to the ADF&G. This work included test fishing at the PWS entrances 
(Hinchinbrook and Montague) in addition to monitoring in over 30 
streams across PWS. The focus of the project was on quantifying the 
fraction of hatchery-origin pink and chum salmon in the run (entering 
PWS) and in the spawning populations in streams. This work resulting in 
the most rigorous assessment to date of the scale and magnitude of 
straying of hatchery-origin salmon in this ecosystem. The project also 
involves sampling tissues to assemble DNA-based pedigrees to compare 
relative reproductive fitness in pink salmon families whose parents 
differ in origin. This work will provide some insight into whether 
families composed of hatchery-origin parents are less fit than those 
completing their entire life cycle in natural habitats. PWSSC have 
produced annual reports on this project (posted on the ADF&G website) 
and we are currently finalizing two manuscripts (on PWS and SE Alaska) 
that will be reviewed by the AHRP Science Panel and submitted to a 
scientific journal for peer-review.
Salmon Under Climate Change Impacts
    The plumes of meltwater that stream out from tidewater glaciers are 
a double threat for ocean acidification: They do not contain much 
calcium or carbon dioxide. Being calcium poor, meltwater tends to be 
corrosive to calcium in general, and being low in carbon dioxide means 
that when those water do take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, 
they tend to become even more acidic as the carbon dioxide is converted 
to carbonic acid. That is bad news for any marine organism with a 
calcium carbonic shell, because their shell will be dissolved by those 
acidic waters. Prince William Sound alone has lost many cubic 
kilometers of ice in the last two decades, and glaciers and ice sheets 
continue to recede; this problem can be expected to get worse, not 
better as time passes.
    The productivity in the marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Alaska each 
year is set up in part by the size and duration of the ``spring 
bloom'': an explosion of growth by primary producers that proceeds 
until all the nutrients in the surface waters are used up. The size of 
that spring bloom in many ways sets up the amount of production that 
will make its way into higher trophic levels like fish. A better 
understanding of the timing and magnitude of that bloom will give us a 
better idea of the state of the ecosystem, and improve our ability to 
forecast fisheries productivity.
Conclusion
    Rapid environmental changes are occurring in Alaska. Unprecedented 
ocean conditions have characterized the northeast Pacific Ocean in 
recent years including anomalously warm sea-surface temperatures 2-3 +C 
above the long-term average. We know that Prince William Sound is 
changing: the North Pacific in general is warming at about a fifth of a 
degree per decade, we see that signal in the waters flowing into the 
Sound from the GOA. Our research suggests that fish exposed to 
anomalously warm coastal waters in their first year in the ocean made 
them more likely to suffer effects from competitive interactions with 
pink salmon. We also documented slower growth rate (as measured on 
scales) of several key populations of sockeye salmon in the Gulf of 
Alaska during the years influenced by the Blob. We feel more studies 
are highly relevant for filling knowledge gaps that are currently of 
interest to a variety of salmon stakeholders in the State of Alaska. In 
addition, we believe a new program of research focused on the ecosystem 
shifts, especially those associated around the loss of glacial ice and 
related to salmon, is necessary for our region.
    As part of this research, we believe that to truly get a picture of 
what is happening we need to take in place measurements at different 
depths--not just remote-sensing. This will allow us to understanding 
interactions between wild and hatchery salmon--in PWS and GOA and on 
the spawning grounds. This needs to be broad, and include 
oceanographers, ecologists, pathologists, geneticists, fishery 
managers, and hatchery operators. More work on key fitness components 
(spawning, hatching and early life history, resistance to pathogens, 
etc.) should be undertaken to help elucidate any differences that might 
exists between wild, natural-origin, and hatchery-origin salmon in PWS. 
We must also look at ocean effects on salmon--growth and competitive 
interactions at sea. NOAA has substantial resources, and groups like 
PWSSC could collaborate, focusing on linkages between PWS and GOA, for 
example. In addition, we must look at migratory and reproductive 
performance of salmon in changing river conditions, including 
glacially-influenced rivers like the Copper or smaller coastal streams 
like many in PWS, while also engaging economic studies of salmon 
management practices, to maintain our regional resilience and presence 
as a global leader in salmon management.
    Thank you.

    Senator Sullivan. Great. Thank you, Ms. Hoffman. Ms. 
Peltola.

               STATEMENT OF MARY SATTLER PELTOLA,
              EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KUSKOKWIM RIVER
                  INTER-TRIBAL FISH COMMISSION

    Ms. Peltola. Thank you, Senator Sullivan. My name is Mary 
Peltola. I'm the Executive Director of the Kuskokwim River 
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. The fish commission is a 
consortium of all of the 33 federally recognized Alaska Native 
tribes located along the Kuskokwim River.
    In February 2016, the Kusko Fish Commission entered into a 
Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife 
Service to cooperatively manage the Kuskokwim River Chinook 
salmon stocks and to ensure more self-determined management 
structure.
    The fish commission has four in-season managers who, 
together with the Federal and state managers, make important 
in-season decisions about fishing openings and closures. Our 
in-season managers have fished on the Kuskokwim River for 
decades and bring a wealth of traditional knowledge to the 
table. Traditional knowledge is rarely used by managers who 
favor western scientific models and data sources.
    While there is a role for western science and traditional 
knowledge in co-management, traditional knowledge fills 
informational gaps that can otherwise confound in-season 
management decisions. Traditional knowledge also makes adaptive 
management possible. By integrating traditional knowledge into 
existing western management regimes, we hope to pioneer a 
better approach to fisheries co-management.
    Traditional knowledge means having a detailed and deep 
understanding of an ecosystem and using that understanding to 
help you make informed decisions about where and when to use 
that ecosystem's resources.
    For example, this summer the Kuskokwim River had a later 
Chinook run. Rather than coming in in late May or early June, 
Chinook started to come back in mid-June. And we see this trend 
not only with Chinook salmon, but many other species of salmon, 
as well as migratory birds. The moose this year were about 2 
weeks late in coming down to the banks. We see it with insects 
and plants, as well.
    By the last week of June, Kuskokwim subsistence fishermen 
had had only two chances to fish and June is usually--has 
traditionally been unrestricted, and that's when we put up all 
of our fish. Western science cannot accurately predict run 
timing or what percentage of the run has passed at a given 
location.
    One of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission's 
in-season managers, James Nicori, relied on his traditional 
knowledge to help answer these questions. James predicted that 
more Chinook were coming because he knew that when catches are 
successful on the Kuskokwim side of the river in front of his 
fish camp and unsuccessful on the Kuskokwak Slough side, it is 
still early in the run.
    As of June 22, James had observed fishermen catching on the 
Kuskokwim side, and skunking on the slough side. To him, this 
meant that we were not yet halfway through the run.
    Federal and state managers were reluctant to accept James' 
knowledge because no proven or scientific or reliable data 
supported it. But the fish commission firmly recommended 
additional opportunity based on this traditional knowledge, and 
two limited openings were held on June 24 and on June 29. 
People were able to fish, and the additional chances did not 
compromise overall escapement goals.
    In another example of traditional knowledge, in 2014, I 
asked my uncle, Phillip Noes, to teach me how to use a set net. 
He only asked me one question: What do you want to catch? I 
said sockeye--we call them reds on our river--and I did not 
want to get any kings, or Chinook. In early June we went to the 
mouth of the Gweek River, and he showed me exactly how to set 
the net. Each day when I checked the net, 85 to 95 percent of 
the fish in it were sockeye, and I only caught one Chinook that 
summer.
    Traditional knowledge is also essential to effectively 
addressing climate change in the Kuskokwim River region and its 
effect on our natural resources. Climate change impacts our 
lands, waters and natural resources. Because of climate change, 
we cannot harvest enough Chinook to meet our nutritional needs.
    Traditional knowledge represents the most significant data 
set of systemic observations to our ecosystem. Using 
traditional knowledge to address climate change ensures that 
our responses have the necessary adaptivity and flexibility.
    I urge Congress to support and create additional 
legislative, administrative and funding opportunities for our 
tribes to fully co-manage our important resources on an equal 
footing with our Federal and state partners. The only effective 
way to co-manage our resources is by fully integrating our 
traditional knowledge into co-management.
    I would also ask you to seriously consider moving the 
Federal subsistence program out of its current location.
    And I really appreciate this opportunity to speak in front 
of you. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Peltola follows:]

    Prepared Statement of Mary Sattler Peltola, Executive Director, 
                 Kuskokwim Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
    My name is Mary Peltola. I am the Executive Director of the 
Kuskokwim Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (KRITFC). I am originally from 
Kwethluk, Alaska, a small Yupik Alaska Native Village located on the 
Kuskokwim River. I have been fishing with my family on the Kuskokwim in 
our traditional ways for my entire life. Our fishing--when we fish, 
where we fish, how we fish--has always been informed and managed by our 
traditional knowledge. For thousands of years, our traditional 
knowledge protected our salmon stocks and helped ensure healthy runs 
and returns. However, despite an agreement with the U.S. Department of 
Interior (DOI) that provides our tribes with a role in the co-
management of traditional subsistence fisheries on the Kuskokwim, our 
traditional knowledge is continually sidelined and minimized in favor 
of Western scientific models and data sources championed by Federal and 
State administrative structures and policy priorities. The failure to 
acknowledge and fully integrate our traditional knowledge undermines 
our tribes' efforts to protect our salmon stocks and preserve our 
traditional ways of life. I will first describe the KRITFC and how it 
utilizes traditional knowledge in its co-management of Chinook salmon 
stocks in the Kuskokwim River, and will then recommend how Congress can 
support and create additional legislative, administrative and funding 
opportunities for our tribes to fully co-manage important resources in 
Alaska. I will also recommend how Congress can recognize the value of 
traditional knowledge and its importance in improving resource 
management outcomes, including addressing salmon management in the face 
of climate change.
    For about a decade now, our Kuskokwim Chinook salmon stocks have 
been crashing. The consequences are disastrous. We depend on Chinook 
salmon for our nutritional, spiritual, and cultural well-being. In May 
2015, the KRITFC was formed as a consortium of all of the 33 federally-
recognized Alaska Natives tribes located along the Kuskokwim River to 
address the crisis facing our Chinook salmon. This historical unity of 
the tribes was driven by our understanding, and insistence, that we 
must have at least a co-management role if our Chinook salmon stocks 
and our traditional ways of life were to survive in the face of 
drastically reduced Chinook returns. Each tribe appoints a Commissioner 
to the KRITFC which is authorized to make decisions on behalf of that 
Tribe. The Commissioners, in turn, select seven of their own members to 
serve on an Executive Council that is responsible for making larger 
governance and strategy determinations for the KRITFC. The KRITFC, and 
the Executive Council, strives to achieve consensus in all decisions. 
The KRITFC also selects four In-Season Managers from four different 
regions along the Kuskokwim River (Upper, Middle, Lower, and Lowest) 
who, together with Federal and State managers, participate in making 
important in-season decisions about fishing openings and closures. In-
Season Managers bring a wealth of traditional knowledge to a 
conversation otherwise dominated by Western scientific principles.
    In February 2016, the KRITFC entered into a Memorandum of 
Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The 
MOU was designed to enable the KRITFC, together with FWS, to 
cooperatively manage Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon stocks to ensure a 
stronger, more self-determined management structure, help address 
conservation issues so that the run could recover, and to avoid the 
burdensome administrative process. Working with FWS, the KRITFC has 
consistently and unanimously agreed to voluntary fishing restrictions 
to protect Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon stocks. The KRITFC also uses 
its collective traditional knowledge and expertise concerning the 
Kuskokwim River to develop culturally appropriate conservation 
management plans.
    Since inception, the KRITFC has aspired to integrate traditional 
knowledge in the development of management plans for the Kuskokwim 
River, and to jointly implement these management plans with FWS and, 
when possible, the State of Alaska. It is also the KRITFC's goal that 
once a management plan is agreed to, and consistent with conservation, 
our tribes will be clearly empowered to implement and enforce that plan 
for their rural tribal members. Only when traditional knowledge is 
fully integrated into management of Chinook salmon stocks, and we are 
fully able to implement and enforce management plans throughout our 
tribes, will there be true co-management. Co-management of whaling 
through the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission is clear evidence that 
fully incorporating Alaska Natives and their knowledge into management 
of subsistence uses and resources is essential for conservation and to 
continue the traditional and cultural well-being of Alaska Natives.
    However, the KRITFC's ability to achieve its goals for full co-
management authority is frustrated under existing Federal and State 
subsistence management programs. Throughout its 702-mile long course, 
the Kuskokwim River runs through both Federal and State lands and is 
subject to the management jurisdictions of both entities. Under the 
Alaska National Interest in Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), Federal 
managers are required to prioritize non-wasteful subsistence uses of 
fish and wildlife resources, such as Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon, by 
Alaska's rural residents, including KRITFC's rural tribal members. If 
conservation concerns require Federal managers to restrict people from 
hunting or fishing from a certain stock, they must consider a user's 
customary and direct dependence upon the resource as the mainstay of 
livelihood, the user's local residency, and the availability of 
alternative resources before any restrictions are put in place. ANILCA 
helps to ensure that the people who depend on a resource the most have 
the best opportunity to harvest that resource.
    By contrast, State law prohibits prioritizing subsistence uses of 
fish and game resources for Alaska's rural residents. Instead, State 
managers must provide all Alaskans, regardless of whether they live in 
a rural village where food is costly and scarce or in an urban city 
where food is plentiful and relatively affordable, with equal access 
and opportunity to take fish and wildlife resources. Realistically, the 
State's ``all-Alaskans'' policy means is that a person who works and 
lives in Anchorage is provided with the same opportunity to fish for 
Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon as an elder subsistence user living in 
Bethel who is unemployed and depends on the nutrition provided by 
Chinook salmon to make it through the winter without going hungry.
    These conflicting management regimes create serious problems that 
restrict our tribes' subsistence opportunities and impede our ability 
to fully engage in our traditional subsistence ways of life and to be 
fully self-determined in our engagement. Despite these obvious 
conflicts, and despite the fact that Federal management is required to 
prioritize subsistence opportunities for rural residents, it is the FWS 
policy to defer to state management of the Kuskokwim River whenever 
possible. Unless FWS agrees that there is a conservation concern or a 
threat to subsistence uses, the agency stands aside while the State 
manages the Federal portion of the Kuskokwim River through State 
regulations governed by its diluted ``all-Alaskans'' policy and its 
bias towards commercial fisheries. This is routinely done over the 
KRITFC's objection, and to the obvious detriment of rural subsistence 
users. It is also contrary to the intent of the MOU that KRITFC entered 
into with the FWS.
    Neither Federal nor State management regimes recognize our right as 
a matter of policy or law to manage our fish and wildlife resources. 
The fact that we do not reside within reservations is used as an excuse 
to sideline tribal co-management. And, because we do not have a direct 
role in either the Federal or State management systems, our traditional 
knowledge is sidelined and takes a backseat to the empirical data and 
assumptions informed by the Western science favored by Federal and 
State managers, despite the fact that we have successfully managed this 
river with our traditional knowledge for thousands of years.
    Since before contact with Russian traders and missionaries, and 
certainly before statehood, we were stewards of this resource and 
successfully managed the harvest and conservation of our Kuskokwim 
River salmon stocks according to our traditional Yupik and Athabascan 
rules and values. These rules and values are not difficult to 
understand: provide for children, the sick, and the elderly first. Only 
catch what you can eat, and share what you cannot. Treat all resources 
with respect. Co-management is not true co-management without full 
acknowledgement and integration of our traditional knowledge into the 
management of our Chinook salmon.
    While each KRITFC member tribe has a unique relationship with the 
Kuskokwim, we are all unified by the vitally important role salmon--in 
particular, Chinook salmon--plays in our nutritional, cultural, and 
spiritual well-being. We are further unified by our bounty of 
traditional knowledge and expertise about effectively managing and 
protect our Chinook salmon stocks in the face of diminishing returns 
and the unpredictable effects of climate change. Our traditional 
knowledge helps us understand who we are and how to act to ensure 
future success for our children and communities. Traditional knowledge 
guides our customs, ceremonies, cultural practices, and our individual 
behaviors to ensure that respect is shown to the land, water, and 
natural resources upon which our people depend.
    While I personally do not think that Western science values 
traditional knowledge in the same way that it values empirical data, 
there is increasing interest in and attention being paid to traditional 
knowledge in the context of resource management. However, many people 
misunderstand traditional knowledge or are confused by what it means. 
Traditional knowledge is holistic. The quality and behavior of one 
species can be used as an indicator of presence and abundance of a 
completely different species. What one thinks, what one says, and what 
one does, all has the potential to impact or influence another aspect 
of one's world. Wasting a resource or treating a resource 
disrespectfully incurs consequences for the individual, those around 
them, as well as the resource. In comparison, the western way of 
knowing is compartmentalized and specialized, some might say narrow. A 
western scientific observer may study a particular aspect of the world, 
like salmon run-timing and abundance, take notes, gather data, test 
hypotheses, confirm or formulate new theories, and develop a predicted 
salmon run forecast for the next season based on mathematic models.
    Some academics understand traditional knowledge as ``a living body 
of knowledge which pertains to explaining and understanding the 
universe and living and acting within it. It is acquired and utilized 
by indigenous communities and individuals in and through long-term 
sociocultural, spiritual and environmental engagement. TK is an 
integral part of the broader knowledge system of indigenous 
communities, is transmitted intergenerationally, is practically and 
widely applicable, and integrates personal experience with oral 
traditions. It provides perspectives applicable to an array of human 
and non-human phenomena. It is deeply rooted in history, time, and 
place, while also being rich, adaptable, and dynamic, all of which keep 
it relevant and useful in contemporary life. This knowledge is part of, 
and used in, everyday life, and is inextricably intertwined with 
peoples' identity, cosmology, values, and way of life. Tradition--and 
TK--does not change, nor does it equal only `the past'; in fact, in 
inherently entails change.'' \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Raymond-Yakoubian, Julie, Brendon Raymond-Yakoubian and 
Catherine Moncrief. 2017. The incorporation of traditional knowledge 
into Alaska Federal fisheries management. Marine Policy 78: 132-142.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I understand traditional knowing as having a detailed and deep 
understanding of an ecosystem and using that understanding to help you 
make informed decisions about where and when to use that ecosystem's 
resources. For example, in 2014, my mom's younger brother taught me how 
to use a little set net to fish for red (sockeye) salmon. We went to 
the mouth of the Gweek River, a small tributary of the Kuskokwim River 
north of Bethel, where his grandparents had their fish camp. He knew 
exactly where to put the net to catch 95 percent sockeye (Reds) and 
avoid Chinook salmon. Many biologists and fisheries managers imagine 
that gill nets are indiscriminate killers of fish. But if you know 
where each species tends to swim, if they prefer sandbars, slower 
currents or deeper depths, gill nets can be a very targeted and 
discreet gear type. I know this from experience: I only caught one 
Chinook in the set net that summer.
    My friend Charlie Wright, who lives on the Yukon River, told me 
that on his section of the Yukon, an indicator of the arrival of 
Chinook salmon is yellow butterflies. When he sees a yellow butterfly, 
he knows the Chinook salmon are there. He also said the abundance of 
yellow butterflies reflects the abundance of Chinook salmon. In 2017 
when the Chinook salmon came back in real numbers, there were big 
swarms of butterflies again. These interconnections are inherent to 
indigenous knowledge systems and represent a very different way of 
viewing the relationship between human beings and the natural world 
compared western science.
    Traditional knowledge should not need to be ``proven'' by Western 
scientific methods and ways of knowing before it is considered in 
making resource management decisions, but oftentimes, our traditional 
knowledge is disregarded in favor of western scientific predictions and 
models. For example, in 2017, the KRITFC and FWS agreed on a 
conservative harvest of 40,000 Chinook salmon during pre-season 
negotiations and meetings. This harvest estimate was based upon the 
State's estimated Chinook returns--estimates based wholly on western 
science.
    However, when the run actually started FWS and the KRITFC disagreed 
about its size and timing. Western science indicators used by UFWS 
suggested that the Chinook run was weak, whereas real-time traditional 
knowledge suggested that the Chinook run was strong but returning in 
ways--running deeper in the river, and returning later in the summer--
for which western science could not account. At the end of the summer, 
the post-season escapement numbers confirmed that the traditional 
knowledge advanced by the Commission was correct, and there was a 
surplus of at least 10,000 Chinook salmon. While the conservation of 
these fish was important, those 10,000 fish represent lost subsistence 
opportunity and food security for hundreds of our tribal members. Had 
our traditional knowledge been fully acknowledged and recognized, we 
would not have lost important subsistence fishing opportunity.
    There is a role for both Western science and traditional knowledge 
in the co-management of Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon stocks. The 
KRITFC strives to make all management decisions using the best 
available data. Oftentimes, that best available data is our traditional 
knowledge. Traditional knowledge fills informational gaps that can 
otherwise confound in-season management decisions. By integrating 
traditional knowledge into existing Western management regimes, the 
KRITFC hopes to pioneer a more complete, accurate, and holistic 
approach to fisheries management.
    KRITFC's In-Season Managers all value the empirical data that is 
presented by our State and Federal managing partners in support of 
their management decisions. However, these tribal managers also 
recognize the value of traditional knowledge and are skilled at 
incorporating traditional knowledge into resource management decision-
making in order to strengthen the end result. For example, upon 
receiving a mathematical forecast of the anticipated salmon return, our 
In-Season Managers will also use other traditional information before 
advising people on when and how long to fish. These additional 
considerations include observations about river water levels, snow 
depth of the previous season, height of grasses, when shoots of green 
grass emerge, numbers of migrating birds arriving and when they arrive, 
where people have been catching certain kinds of fish and which stock 
of fish are presently migrating, the nature of and direction of winds 
at the river mouth, when cotton flies, when there are storms in 
Kuskokwim Bay, river water temperatures, water clarity, amount of 
debris floating downriver, anticipated fishing interests, and fish-
drying weather conditions, and the effect that these interconnected 
observations have on one another insofar as fisheries management is 
concerned.
    There are a number of other ways in which the KRITFC uses 
traditional knowledge to improve management decisions and outcomes on 
the Kuskokwim River. A few years ago, the Bering Sea Fisherman's 
Association (BSFA) designed and began implementing a community harvest 
data monitoring program. This program trains people from local 
Kuskokwim communities to collect real-time harvest data from 
subsistence fishermen and women either as they fish, or immediately 
thereafter, to gauge the size, strength, and timing of Kuskokwim River 
Chinook salmon runs. Recently, the KRITFC partnered with BSFA to help 
implement this program. The KRITFC then uses the information reported 
by BSFA's community monitors to inform its management decisions. The 
KRITFC firmly believes that the knowledge of our local fishermen and 
women is one of the best and most accurate sources of in-season 
information we have. Their individual experiences and observations of 
fishing conditions are a unique and essential source of traditional 
knowledge that we rely on heavily during the fishing season.
    The KRITFC's use of information collected through the Bethel Test 
Fishery is another example of how the KRITFC blends empirical data with 
traditional knowledge to improve management outcomes. Every year, the 
State of Alaska's Bethel Test Fishery (BTF) helps to monitor the 
strength and timing of Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon run. The number 
of Chinook salmon that pass through the BTF each day during the season 
is used as an indication of the run's health, strength, and timing. As 
with the data provided by BSFA's harvest monitoring program, data 
collected by the BTF plays a critical role in the KRITFC's in-season 
management decisions.
    Traditional knowledge is also essential in any study of climate 
change in the Kuskokwim River region and how climate change is 
affecting our natural resources. Traditional knowledge represents the 
most significant data set of systematic observations of our ecosystem. 
Though the KRITFC lacks the resources to conduct ``formal'' climate 
change studies demonstrating how climate change is affecting our 
subsistence resources, by the measure of the traditional knowledge used 
and recognized by our elders, it is evident that climate change is 
making it more challenging to predict weather, river conditions, and 
fish and wildlife behavior. Our tribal elders are observing changes in 
weather, temperature, river water levels, returning species, and other 
indicators of natural resource status, health, changes which all 
suggest that climate change and the coincident escalation of global 
temperatures is having a detrimental effect upon our subsistence 
resources--which, in turn, has a detrimental effect upon our physical, 
psychological, and spiritual well-being.
    As this Subcommittee is aware, climate change has a broad range of 
impacts upon the lands, waters, and natural resources of Alaska. From 
milder, drier winters to warmer, wetter summers, these impacts change 
our physical landscape right before our eyes. These impacts also affect 
health and strength of the natural resources we depend on, as well as 
the lives and health of our tribal members. We need secure, dependable 
funding in order to build our capacity and commit to monitoring the 
effects of climate change. Additional congressional appropriation is 
one of the only ways to secure this necessary funding.
    It is difficult to know the full extent to which climate change has 
affected the health and bounty of Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon 
stocks. But recent years of disastrously low Chinook salmon returns 
have deeply impacted our emotional, nutritional, economic, social, and 
spiritual well-being. We are no longer able to harvest enough Chinook 
salmon to meet our nutritional needs throughout Alaska's long and harsh 
winters. When our families can barely feed themselves, it then becomes 
additionally challenging for us to engage in our traditional practices 
of sharing and trading food resources with our friends and family who 
cannot otherwise provide for themselves. The Commission believes that 
the negative effects of climate change have contributed to, and even 
created, an ongoing scarcity of essential resources, which in turn is 
causing an ongoing crisis in our tribal communities as we lose our food 
security and watch one another suffer.
    My recommendation to the Subcommittee is simple: support and create 
additional legislative, administrative and funding opportunities for 
our tribes to fully co-manage important resources in Alaska. Recognize 
the value of traditional knowledge and its importance in improving 
resource management outcomes, including addressing salmon management in 
the face of climate change. The diluted form of tribal ``cooperative 
management'' that the State and FWS seek to foster may serve to protect 
their perceived roles as the ``primary'' management authorities. This 
failed model, however, will not serve either the salmon or subsistence 
users moving into the future. The only way to fully integrate 
traditional knowledge, and secure a partnership with the primary salmon 
harvesters on the Kuskokwim, is to establish, in law, a co-management 
structure that integrates the KRITFC as an equal with the State and 
FWS.

    Senator Sullivan. Great. Thank you. Thanks again to all the 
witnesses. Again, I think you see the expertise that's aligned 
here.
    So let me ask a very basic question. Well, really two. 
Hopefully you got to see the first panel. But you know, I 
didn't get a sense that a lot of them thought there were a lot 
of data gaps, and I get the sense that you think that there are 
a lot of data gaps. And that's fine. That's why we are having 
two panels and getting the views of everybody.
    So let me open this up to all the panelists. You know, what 
would you consider the top data gaps, you know, top two or 
three that we need to focus on, Federal, state, but mostly 
Federal here?
    And then a second question. Why don't we just start with 
that question. Then I'll go to the second one. I'll just open 
it up to any of you.
    Yes, Ms. Hoffman.
    Ms. Hoffman. That's an opportunity to put in a pitch for 
the value of oceanography because, as you heard the first panel 
mention the phrase ocean conditions, ocean conditions, and 
ocean conditions.
    Senator Sullivan. Right.
    Ms. Hoffman. The challenge with the ship-based monitoring 
that they mentioned is that it's very limited temporally and 
spatially. You go out on a vessel for about a week, maybe more, 
maybe less, and in that time you collect data. Satellites can 
collect data on much greater time scales, but it's not very 
fine in resolution.
    So we have in Alaska the opportunity to improve ocean 
observing systems through both moored and autonomous devices. 
For example, the Prince William Sound has an autonomous moored 
profiling robot that's stationed in the central Prince William 
Sound. It does two runs a day between zero feet and 200 feet of 
depth, and in that run it collects all kinds of chemical, 
physical and biological data. It appears at the surface and 
pings that data to us via a cell tower. We can control it 
remotely. And----
    Senator Sullivan. How far out in the ocean can that go, 
like how many miles off the shoreline?
    Ms. Hoffman. We have this moored just to the east of Naked 
Island, but you can moor devices in potentially any location, 
as well as devices that operate autonomously without any 
moorings that are transiting the ocean environment.
    And although it is expensive to instrument these and they 
do need to be maintained from time to time, we installed this 
device in the ocean in March and we remove it sometime between 
October and December. That allows us to capture the spring 
bloom, the fall bloom, and to detect the zooplankton that are 
prey for forage fish and salmon species. And we have been doing 
this for 6 years in Prince William Sound.
    Our colleagues at UAF just got funding from NSF and others 
to install a similar device on the Seward line that they are in 
the process of constructing, but as you can hear, there is an 
opportunity to collect this kind of environmental data in many 
locations that will be relevant and valuable to fishery 
managers, both Federal and state.
    Senator Sullivan. Anyone else on that?
    Ms. Peltola. In addition to using traditional knowledge, 
the Kuskokwim River has seen a marked reduction in resources 
available from mostly the state side. Many weirs are not being 
operated. We need--we always need--and a marked recapture study 
had been funded using disaster funds that is now closed.
    Bering Sea Fishermen's Association started a community-
based harvest monitoring program that does not have funding for 
next summer, as well as sonar, test fish, aerial surveys; all 
of those things need additional funding.
    Dr. Baker. Let me just weigh in there, as well. I think I 
would agree with Milo that I think the habitat is quite good in 
Alaska, and I think that allows for resilience overall, but 
understanding individual year or maybe stanzas of years and 
returns, both in terms of abundance and run timing and so on, 
there are a lot of issues that are related to ocean conditions.
    And so understanding how those ocean conditions--similar to 
what Katrina was talking about, how that influences different 
stage-specific survival for different species, looking at 
whether or not there are some carrying capacity constraints for 
some of those fish, I think there are several questions along 
those lines that we'd be really good to get at.
    And we had an integrated ecosystem research program in the 
Gulf of Alaska that was primarily devoted toward looking at 
groundfish in the first year of survival, which meant looking 
up in the water column up high. And we collected a lot of--
opportunistically we collected a lot of salmon data there. And 
there were some recognitions that salmon at that life stage are 
competing to some extent with some of those groundfish. So 
understanding some of the species interactions in the marine 
environment, I think, is another area. Danielle might be able 
to talk more about that, as well.
    Senator Sullivan. Dr. Adkison.
    Dr. Adkison. Yes. So I wanted to talk about kind of a 
general lack of knowledge about where salmon go and what they 
do in the ocean. It's a really hard and really expensive thing 
to study. One of the biggest improvements we made during my 
career is these regular NOAA nearshore surveys looking at 
juvenile salmon. And I think you heard the last panel talk 
about how they have kind of had to cobble together funding to 
continue that program every year.
    Senator Sullivan. So you would say that is a critical gap 
that we should prioritize funding for?
    Dr. Adkison. I would say so. And I would also like to 
extend it beyond looking at the--the excellent program looking 
at juvenile salmon in the nearshore to putting more effort into 
older salmon further out in the ocean.
    Senator Sullivan. That's a lot harder to do, though, I take 
it?
    Dr. Adkison. It is quite a lot harder to do. That study I 
was talking about that was looking at oceanic predation in 
salmon sharks, one of our faculty has been putting pop-up 
satellite tags on Chinook salmon that are older out in--near 
Dutch Harbor he has been taking them. But it's really 
expensive. It's hard to get a good sample size. But we really 
don't know what they are doing out there.
    Senator Sullivan. Ms. Gillis.
    Ms. Gillis. Thank you. And I concur everything that was 
said, except I have a couple more points. So----
    Senator Sullivan. Remember, I asked you to prioritize.
    Ms. Gillis. Right. So my point is the Sustainable Salmon 
Initiative addressed this directly starting--we have been 
addressing this since 2002; what are the gaps, what are the 
priorities. We do have within the science research plan that I 
provided today seven, but I would say the top three, and as I 
think about your Federal view on Alaska, freshwater is 
extremely important, you know, for a lot of reasons.
    Bill Templin mentioned the juvenile studies and so did Milo 
because he's right. We have cobbled together a lot of money. We 
agree that that's an incredible priority, what the juvenile, 
you know, life expectancy really is from the point they leave 
that month until they return.
    So we also believe that ocean mortality at any level were--
again, Bill said when do those fish die in their life span, and 
anthropogenic changes to marine ecologic processes. Again, it 
kind of crosses the board. These are very expensive, all of 
these. And I don't expect that anyone can afford, even the most 
efficient spenders of money, but I do think as organizations 
work more and more together, we really do have an opportunity 
here to keep things efficient and not duplicate efforts.
    Senator Sullivan. Let me ask a related question. And you 
know, we have two panels here. The first one, obviously, was 
the government, and they need the data. But they make the 
decisions. They make the management decisions. They, you know, 
have the authority to do that as state and Federal officials.
    A lot of what you guys are doing is not only helping with 
them, but reinforcing their decisionmaking by providing 
additional data and expertise. How well do you feel you are 
able to plug in to them in terms of getting your expertise, 
your data--Ms. Peltola, I specifically wanted to emphasize and 
I'm glad your testimony did, the importance of traditional 
knowledge. I think we have seen examples.
    You know, I spoke in my remarks at AFN earlier this morning 
about what happened with the International Whaling Commission 
down in Brazil and the subsistence quota that was reauthorized, 
but I think most Alaskans know the story there that the whaling 
captains, you know, had much better knowledge about what was 
happening with the bowhead whale population than all the best 
western scientists in the world. And it took the western 
scientists a long time to recognize like, holy cow, these guys 
have got it right and we have been wrong the whole time. But 
they finally did, which was good.
    So for all of you, are there roadblocks to plug in? It 
seems like the feds and the state are pretty amenable to 
getting the data and the expertise that you also bring to the 
table. But is that the case and are there areas that we can do 
a better job on that? Really from everybody.
    Mary, you want to start?
    Ms. Peltola. Could you see I was really eager?
    Senator Sullivan. You are.
    Ms. Peltola. So we have an MOU. The Kuskokwim Inter-Tribal 
Fish Commission has an MOU with Fish and Wildlife, as I stated. 
And under it, the advice given by the in-season managers is 
urged to be taken with the utmost adherence to that advice. 
That is not something that we on our river enjoyed with the 
state. It was advisory and it was very clear--it has been very 
clear that that's just advice and they don't have to take it. 
And for many years there was much frustration because of that.
    We do feel with the Inter-Tribal Fish Commission that we 
are in the room where the decisions are happening and have more 
say in openings and closures.
    Senator Sullivan. So that's gotten a little better.
    Ms. Peltola. It is with this Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. 
I also want to add that with our four in-season managers, they 
come from four sections of the river. And because they have 
that--they have been on that river every summer of their life--
their parents, grandparents, ancestors--they have a sense of 
deep time that we don't have in western science. And because 
they are residents and from there and depend on that species, 
it has added legitimacy to the management of our river.
    And I believe--you know, and we are not the only river that 
has an Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. There's also one on the 
Yukon. And I think that with tribal co-management, it adds 
legitimacy in the eyes of Native people.
    Senator Sullivan. Others in terms of the plug-in process? 
Yes. Dr. Adkison.
    Dr. Adkison. Yes. So I just wanted to give a shout out to a 
program that's really good at bringing state, Federal and 
private groups together, and that's the fish habitat 
partnerships that are funded through Fish and Wildlife Service. 
The groups on the Kenai, the Mat-Su group, the Bristol Bay 
group, Southeast Alaska group are doing wonderful cooperative 
work. You know, Mat-Su group is doing a whole bunch of stuff, 
restoring fish passage and prioritizing that. That's Federal 
funded, and it's just completely nonconfrontational. We have 
got the Director of the Bristol Bay group and the former 
Director of the Kenai group here in the audience.
    Senator Sullivan. Ms. Gillis.
    Ms. Gillis. I want to echo something Mary said in her 
testimony and maybe put it into a different light.
    Mary mentioned the information about how the run was late 
this year based on traditional knowledge. She also mentioned 
that her uncle took her out and taught her, do you want to 
catch the right fish--if you want to catch a particular fish, 
this is how you do it. Those are scientists and those are 
managers. And Mary is right. Traditional ecological knowledge 
is not respected. As far as, you know, the big decisions, I 
think it's unwanted, like Mary said.
    Bering Sea Fishermen's Association knows that the people in 
the region have a seat at the table, need a seat at the table. 
We have been working on it. I mean, really, you know, it's our 
main priority. And it's not just about us. It's about making 
sure that there are entities in the region and individuals in 
the region that have the right information in their hands so 
that they can talk to the managers at a level that the managers 
talk to them.
    And so it has been a long frustration. I have been with the 
organization for 26 years with a little blip, even though I 
didn't actually leave. And I have to say, it's frustrating, and 
I feel it's deceiving in the public service efforts to say, 
yes, we'll take your money so that you can fund our research 
projects, but we don't really want to work with you.
    Senator Sullivan. Others? Ms. Hoffman.
    Ms. Hoffman. Thank you, Senator. Every entity has its own 
mission or mandate. And where I see some of the most excellent 
integration is when a funder requires it. And that's when they 
take a proactive lead on requiring partnerships. You have seen 
this in Gulf Watch Alaska, which was funded by the Exxon Valdez 
Oil Spill Trustee Council. You saw this in the Gulf of Alaska 
Integrated Ecosystem Research Program funded by NPRB.
    And there is a sea change in the scientific community in 
attitudes and approaches on what data is made available 
publicly and when it is made available publicly.
    Senator Sullivan. You mean in a positive way?
    Ms. Hoffman. In a positive way. It's becoming more common.
    Senator Sullivan. Could you explain a little bit more?
    Ms. Hoffman. Well, typically, let's say, in a traditional 
academic environment, a scientist would write a grant. They 
would get funded by an entity to do their work, and they would 
hold that data close forever, sometimes until they die. And 
sometimes they might never publish information based on that 
data. And that limits the ability of the scientific community 
to advance its work.
    So making data publicly available advances the state of 
science, and the effort is smoothed when a funder requires 
that. And you have excellent technological applications, like 
the Alaska ocean observing system has made a data portal 
available. And they mine data from publicly available sources, 
and anyone can use it. And it's a fantastic way of streamlining 
that integrative effort between the nonagencies and 
organizations.
    Senator Sullivan. So you think it's going pretty well?
    Ms. Hoffman. I'm seeing a positive shift.
    Senator Sullivan. Good. Dr. Baker, what about you?
    Dr. Baker. I think it's a great question. As an institute, 
we are kind of in a unique position where we fund academic 
research. We also fund government--Federal, state and 
community-related research.
    And so one of the programs that we have is a data rescue 
program. So we worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and 
Game to take what was essentially a huge archive of written 
documents, most of which I had gone through in some of my 
research in grad school. And it was very inaccessible. It was 
in different offices that different individuals knew about, and 
as they retired, that information was often lost.
    And so we provided a program that allowed them to digitize 
that and publicize that. And that's something that we do, as 
Katrina mentioned, for any of the research that we fund, we 
have an obligation for that project to organize the data, 
develop metadata, to describe what that data is and then have 
that go out to a publicly accessible data portal. And I think 
that's a really important aspect for any kind of funding is to 
ensure that that research, as Katrina had mentioned, is 
accessible beyond the group of individuals or scientists or 
agencies that are working on that.
    And I think we have also made some in-roads with making 
some bridges between institutions. And I actually might ask 
Danielle to talk a little bit about some of the work she was 
doing between both the state and the Federal Government on run 
timing, as well as further outreach to arctic Native 
communities and some of the work that we were doing there.

         STATEMENT OF DANIELLE DICKSON, SENIOR PROGRAM
            MANAGER, CHIEF OFFICER FOR COLLABORATION
          AND SYNTHESIS, NORTH PACIFIC RESEARCH BOARD

    Ms. Dickson. Hi. My name is Danielle Dickson. I'm a Senior 
Program Manager for North Pacific Research Board. I'm also our 
Chief Officer for Collaboration and Synthesis.
    Senator Sullivan. Oh, good.
    Ms. Dickson. So I have been working in recent months with 
NOAA--in part funded by NOAA to help advance an ecological 
forecasting initiative. And one of three case study projects 
involves attempting to forecast run timing for salmon in Cook 
Inlet. So we have----
    Senator Sullivan. I'm assuming when NOAA funds it, they 
want to use it.
    Ms. Dickson. Yes.
    Senator Sullivan. That's good.
    Ms. Dickson. And so I have been very fortunate to work with 
some very talented individuals in both NOAA and the Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game to pool their resources and work on 
building a model.
    And we are drawing from some NPRB-funded research, 
including the data that has been rescued from Fish and Game 
that Matt just mentioned and looking at how we can make better 
connections across organizations to really make use of the 
breadth of data that are available, including data from the 
marine systems that have been collected by other programs like 
NPRB's Gulf of Alaska Integrated Ecosystem Research Program and 
the Seward Line Long-Term Monitoring Program, for example, to 
try to get at some of that information on ocean conditions that 
may be important to salmon run timing.
    And our Integrated Ecosystem Research Program in the Arctic 
runs from the northern Bering Sea through the entire Chukchi 
Sea and a little bit into the western Beaufort Sea. That 
program in part is looking at what are the drivers of fish 
distribution and abundance dance in the Chukchi Sea, including 
specifically pink and chum salmon. And that program includes a 
very robust piece on social science and looking at what are the 
drivers of food security for Arctic residents and whether they 
are more driven by environmental conditions or socioeconomic 
conditions, for example.
    Senator Sullivan. Great. Thank you, Danielle. Ms. Gillis, 
if you want to add to that, but I also wanted to ask you a 
specific question. In your testimony you mentioned the NOAA 
grants and funding, we have seen a significant decline. Why do 
you think that's happening?
    Ms. Gillis. Can I----
    Senator Sullivan. Yes, please.
    Ms. Gillis.--just do a quick--Matt did mention the data 
rescue project, which again--well, the Sustainable Salmon 
Initiative was a partner with the department in rescuing data. 
And I think the noted point here is that it's taking private 
funds sometimes to make data accessible, and that's a 
frustration for us, but I think maybe everyone. And so I just 
wanted to add that to what Matt and Danielle were saying.
    Yes, the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund was 
established in the year 2000 by Congress to address the ESA 
listed stocks. They have three priorities, but their highest 
priority and the highest ranking that determines the highest 
amount of money that you receive now is competitive. Now the 
process for funds is competitive since 2007. So there were 
direct appropriations between 2000 and 2006, and since 2007 
this program has gone to a competitive process.
    And it's--the competition is between Washington, Oregon, 
Idaho, Alaska, Nevada is in there, but--and California and the 
tribal organizations in Washington and Alaska and the Lower 48 
in those same states.
    So we compete against these other states for this funding. 
In fact, the highest priority--and I said it because it's 
just--I don't understand the distinction. And even though we 
have asked--and thank you for sending your letter inquiring to 
the same exact question.
    Their highest priority is to address factors limiting the 
productivity of Pacific salmon either listed under ESA, which 
are the Lower 48 states, or necessary for Native subsistence 
fishing. So if that ``or'' is in there and they continue to 
tell us since 2007 that we don't fit their highest priority, 
then the language is either interpreted incorrectly, which I 
absolutely believe, or I don't know what Native subsistence 
fishing is.
    Senator Sullivan. So you think that that's set up to kind 
of skew the funding to the Lower 48 states?
    Ms. Gillis. I can tell you that of the 1.2 billion, almost 
1.3 billion dollars that the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery 
Fund has awarded, Washington has received $470 million.
    Senator Sullivan. Geez.
    Ms. Gillis. Alaska has received--when we had direct 
appropriations and Senator Stevens and a little bit different 
profile than we do now, it was different. Alaska had a higher 
priority. When we compete, we fail at every turn against those 
other states. And we get about five to seven percent of the----
    Senator Sullivan. But the basis by which you described the 
allocation prioritization, is that a regulation in NOAA or is 
that statutory? Do you know?
    Ms. Gillis. Statutory. Statutory.
    Senator Sullivan. Well, I have one bit of homework to do on 
this issue. Do you have a comment on that, Ms. Hoffman?
    Ms. Hoffman. I did. There are Federal funding 
opportunities, such as the one Ms. Gillis mentioned, that also 
have a heavy match requirement. For institutions that are 
entirely soft money funded, such as several at the table, that 
makes it prohibitive to compete. If you are not an agency with 
base funding, you absolutely cannot enter the competition.
    Second, there are excellent funding opportunities, such as 
the NOAA Saltonstall-Kennedy fund that Alaska--both ADF&G and 
my organization and many others have benefited from in 
fisheries research. I will say to you, though, that the cap on 
individual projects, the value of the cap, is set at $300,000. 
And we know that the cost of doing research in Alaskan waters 
can be astronomically high. You cannot necessarily do a good 
science project in two or more years for under $300,000, but 
you are required to fit within that cap.
    So even if the agency has a set amount of funding, such as 
10 million dollars available for this funding opportunity in a 
year, if they were to raise the cap to, say, half a million, 
scientists could put together better research programs that 
would be better reviewed and we would have the opportunity to 
do better work.
    Senator Sullivan. That's very helpful. And hopefully all of 
you know we had a bill that was a bill of mine that passed the 
Senate recently that for the Saltonstall-Kennedy funds makes it 
much less NOAA controlled and much more kind of our 
stakeholders in terms of being able to choose where the funds 
go, I think, which would benefit all of you, all of us. And 
that recently passed the Senate. We are trying to get that 
through the House and hopefully get that signed into law.
    So let me ask the big $64,000 question from each of you. 
And it's really one of the big reasons we held this. And I 
asked the last panel, of course. Strong runs in certain parts 
of the state, depending on species, historically strong runs, 
weak king runs pretty much almost everywhere, and all kinds of 
theories on what is driving that? I do think it is important to 
look at kind of historical context, which is what I tried to 
emphasize a little bit in my opening statement and I know 
Commissioner Cotten talked about, as well.
    But a lot of theories on the ocean conditions. And what we 
talked about on the last panel a little bit, I won't repeat 
them here, but you guys are experts on it. I would just like 
your very frank opinion on what you think is going on? And I'm 
not sure anybody really knows. The last panel indicated that, 
but might have some more definitive views on that, which I 
would welcome here. So I really want to get your sense of that. 
Maybe we could just start down the line here.
    Dr. Adkison. Sure. And I don't know if I'll be much more 
help. We kind of have an idea when it's happening. The early 
marine period seems to be the most likely culprit.
    Senator Sullivan. So you agree with the last panel to some 
degree on that? They did say that.
    Dr. Adkison. I do, but I'll come back to my kind of the big 
picture that, you know, these ups and downs are normal. And I 
think--I'm a scientist. I want to know why it's happening.
    Senator Sullivan. I don't want to keep interrupting. But 
what about the size of the kings; is that normal, and are we 
ever going to get back to, you know, 70-pound Yukon River 
kings?
    Dr. Adkison. I think so, but I couldn't guarantee it.
    Senator Sullivan. I think we all hope so, right?
    Dr. Adkison. Yes. You know, I--I think these phenomenon are 
driven by environmental fluctuations. And you know, I think 
it's really interesting and important to try to understand 
them. I think it's even more important, though, to make sure 
both the salmon and the people that depend on the salmon have 
the ability to be resilient to these kinds of fluctuations 
because they are going to keep happening.
    Senator Sullivan. OK. Dr. Baker.
    Dr. Baker. Yes. I think it's a great question. I think a 
lot of the most prominent theories have been mentioned already. 
I agree, I think it is an early life history survival and sort 
of a match or mismatch with the environmental conditions in 
that particular area. I think we talked a little bit about the 
differences with the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.
    If you are talking about increased temperatures, there is 
not too much further north you can go in the Gulf of Alaska. 
You are running up against the continent there. Within the 
Bering Sea, you have a little bit more flexibility and the 
Aleutians and sort of adapting to that with your spatial 
distribution.
    And then I think the forage species is also an important 
aspect. Not all these species are feeding on the same things or 
at the same--on the same things at the same life stage. So we 
are looking at what are estuarine conditions, what are some 
offshore conditions, and are you looking at a piscivorous or a 
fish-dominated diet or plankton or squid, and there are some 
significant differences between the species on that, so that 
might be part of it, as well.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you. Ms. Gillis.
    Ms. Gillis. Again, I'll concur in the causes. I think we 
are getting closer to finding out, you know, what are the big 
causes.
    Talking about things that we can do or things that we can 
change, because when these normal fluctuations happen, we don't 
know how to respond right now. So we are taking stabs in the 
dark, and we are--so maybe 150 years from now we will be in 
this new down or whenever the next up is going to happen.
    So let's be prepared and let's not make these issues 
divisive, I guess I would say, too. And we are all looking--we 
all have the same goal. 70-pound Yukon kings, in addition to 
maybe ocean conditions and other factors, disease--they were 
targeted. Everybody wanted those. So our impacts are just as 
real as the science, you know, and the ocean is indicating. So 
will we get back to them? I don't know, honestly. Because we 
don't--there is no data. There is no way to know how--whether 
that will ever happen. Make sure my fingers are crossed because 
I'm always optimistic.
    But anyway, I just wanted to say that they are both right 
and there are so many more factors and considerations that are 
driving this panic in us to find out more.
    Senator Sullivan. Ms. Hoffman.
    Ms. Hoffman. Thank you, Senator. When ecosystems change, 
there are what you might call winners and losers. And our 
colleague, Dr. Sonya Batten, who runs the continuous plankton 
recorder through the north Pacific, detected during the warm 
blob years a presence of more pennate diatoms than we are 
accustomed to seeing. They have a different nutritional 
content. They are preferentially preyed upon by some organisms 
versus others.
    The challenge for humans in an example such as that is that 
the cascading effect up through the ecosystem sometimes affects 
our things that we value. They affect the organisms that our 
industries and communities need to maintain our economy and 
ways of life. And those are unpredictable.
    Senator Sullivan. Ms. Peltola.
    Ms. Peltola. I really feel that our communities that rely 
on salmon have been going through the seven stages of grief. 
And you can see it in meetings. And a lot of that is blame. We 
spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the cause of this 
is. You can't help but wonder if it's that eight-inch 
commercial gear.
    Many scientists have said that the 8-year-old kings, the 
largest ones, are almost extirpated. They are in the very low 
single digits of the entire run. And we know that the larger 
female kings have the best chance--their eggs have the best 
chance of reproducing. They have, I don't know, 65 percent more 
eggs or larger. They have a higher survivability rate.
    I'm learning through my--this job that ocean pinks eat the 
same food that Chinook do, which surprised me because they are 
such different quality of fish. But they eat the same food. And 
there are studies that show that in the high pink years in the 
ocean, kings don't grow as much during that year.
    I personally wonder if it has something to do with no 
snowfall. We have had multiple years of almost--you know, very 
brown tundra. It's really annihilated the ptarmigan and other 
species. But I wonder if at the headwaters if the river is 
freezing to the bottom and freezing the eggs when they are 
incubating.
    And we have seen on our river more presence of one-year-old 
kings, which to me means they don't like the ocean conditions, 
so they are trying to stay in the river longer. I don't know. 
These are all my wild guesses.
    Senator Sullivan. Well, they are important. Well, listen. I 
want to thank everybody here. The goal here is actually to try 
to be unifying and try to find answers to questions that we all 
care about. I think that's a unifying concern here in Alaska. 
And as I mentioned, data and scientific gaps that can help us 
get to some of the answers that I think everybody is struggling 
with. But I'm not sure we solved it, but I think it was a very 
important discussion and a lot of different views.
    So again, I really want to thank the witnesses coming in on 
a Saturday to be part of this official Senate hearing.
    I do want to mention again, we will have a website up where 
people can submit questions. And the way these hearings work is 
the hearing record will remain open for two weeks. During this 
time, myself or other senators may submit questions for the 
record upon receipt. The witnesses, and I should have told the 
last panel because they are still on the hook for answers, are 
requested respectfully to submit their written answers back to 
the Committee as soon as possible if there are additional 
questions for the record for all of you.
    And again, I want to thank all of you for being here. I 
want to thank everybody else who attended. And we will continue 
to focus on this issue. But for now this hearing is adjourned.
    [Proceedings adjourned at 1:10 p.m.]



                            A P P E N D I X

           Additional Testimony of Sam Cotten, Commissioner, 
                   Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Introduction
    Following the hearing that took place at the Dena'ina Civic and 
Convention Center in Anchorage, Alaska on October 20, 2018, the Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is honored to submit additional 
testimony to the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and the 
Coast Guard. Senator Sullivan asked exceptionally important questions 
of the witness panels that led ADF&G to discuss and organize relevant 
research to address the current state of Alaska's salmon fisheries.
Research Need: The Marine Environment (nearshore and open ocean)
    The single largest gap in scientific understanding of Pacific 
Salmon in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) surrounds the marine environment, 
both nearshore (0-5miles offshore) and open ocean. Natural 
perturbations to the marine ecosystem are believed to have had effects 
on food availability, body condition, and ultimately on survival of a 
number of species (Pacific salmon and cod for example) during critical 
juvenile life history stages. Concerns have also surfaced regarding 
fisheries enhancement activities (large scale releases of pink and chum 
salmon) and the capacity of the oceans intrinsic productive capacity to 
support additional inputs while not impacting wild salmon stocks. The 
recent events surrounding the GOA, coupled with several fisheries 
disasters that have been experienced, should be sufficient impetus for 
justifying the following efforts in an attempt to address the 
contemporary questions needing resolution.
Background
    There are estimates that about one third of all Pacific salmon rear 
in the GOA in the winter. An international collaborative project known 
as the Gulf of Alaska Salmon Expedition will be the first comprehensive 
study of the stock abundance, composition, and condition of all species 
of Pacific salmon in the GOA at the end of their winter residence. This 
international study of Pacific salmon could be a precedent for future 
studies to determine mechanisms that regulate Pacific salmon abundance 
in the ocean and potentially develop additional forecasting tools based 
on abundance of stocks sampled. This one expedition should be 
considered a ``proof of concept'' study based on the past success of 
Russian trawl surveys that have been used to assess abundance of pink 
and chum salmon in the Sea of Okhotsk. Surveys of the abundance and 
condition of Pacific salmon in their first winter-at-sea are a logical 
extension of early marine survival studies conducted in nearshore 
marine areas of each North Pacific country. Ultimately, stock-specific 
abundance estimates will be used to test the hypothesis that brood year 
strength of salmon is determined by the end of the first-ocean winter.
Current Projects
    There are several collaborative projects between the State of 
Alaska and NOAA Fisheries aimed at understanding early marine ecology 
of salmon (impact of climate on fitness and survival); information from 
two of these projects are used to forecast adult returns.
    1) Southeast Coastal Monitoring--21 year time series of bio/
physical oceanographic measurements, catch of salmon and other 
associated marine species, and analyses of fish diet and fitness. The 
location is in the northern regions of southeastern Alaska, inside 
waters. The annual survey occurs during the last week of June, July, 
and August (21 days at sea). Data are used to forecast adult returns of 
pink salmon to Southeast Alaska. We are working on forecast tools for 
Chinook and chum salmon at this time. Funding for this project is 
currently provided by the Northern Fund Committee of the Pacific Salmon 
Commission with potential contributions from pink salmon disaster 
funds. Most of the funding goes to the State of Alaska for charter 
costs for the R/V Medeia with some funding directed to contract work at 
the Alaska Fishery Science Center. Long term funding for this work is 
not clear since there are no permanent State of Alaska or NOAA budget 
allocations. Total survey cost is around $300K to $400K.
Past projects that could play a central role in understanding early 
        marine ecology of Gulf of Alaska salmon stocks.
    The Alaska Fisheries Science Center/Alaska Biological Laboratory 
conducted bio/physical oceanographic measurements and surface trawl 
(juvenile salmon and associated marine fish species) along the GOA 
shelf within the eastern and western regions during 2001 to 2016. These 
surveys were conducted on chartered fishing vessels (35 days at sea). 
The data were used to understand ecosystem function, juvenile salmon 
migration, and fitness for stocks from the Pacific Northwest, Canada, 
Southeast Alaska, and Prince William Sound regions, as well as 
collecting information on marine ecology of important age-0 ground fish 
(i.e., sablefish). The annual cost of the research was $850K (charter 
vessel costs = $525K).
New Project(s) International Year of the Salmon (initial effort)
    The international year of the salmon (IYS) is seeking funding to 
address questions related to shifting distribution/migration pathways, 
ocean carrying capacity, and competition among stocks of Pacific 
salmon. A signature project in the GOA (winter 2019) is planned and 
funding has been secured for this effort. The survey/research costs 
associated with this project are approximately $1.75 million of which 
$1 million is for vessel chartering and conducting the survey.
    Each of these surveys have had an impact upon our understanding of 
the GOA/North Pacific ecosystem, however they have not been 
sufficiently connected nor integrated into a cohesive project that 
spans nearshore and offshore processes while integrating information 
from the spring/summer and winter phases of the ecosystem. The current 
activities being conducted in the nearshore environment coupled with 
the winter survey results outlined above should be combined into a 
longer term comprehensive project that addresses the gaps identified 
but also allows for capturing a wider array of ocean environmental 
conditions that are likely occurring over multiple year scales. The 
cost of these surveys in total is in the order of $3-4 million dollars 
annually and should be conducted likely every other year for a period 
of 8-10 years. Efforts have been made through IYS (North Pacific 
Anadromous Fish Commission) to solicit interest from Canada, Japan, 
Korea, and Russia.
Research Need: Human Dimensions of Alaska Salmon Fisheries Management
    Salmon are critically important to the food security, well-being, 
and cultural identity of Alaska's communities and people. Maintaining 
healthy and sustainable salmon stocks requires an effective fisheries 
management program that incorporates sound biological and social 
science. Here, we briefly describe four components of human dimensions 
research on Alaska's salmon fisheries, identify data gaps, and 
highlight key principles of this research. We draw upon the findings of 
the multi-disciplinary State of Alaska's Salmon and People (SASAP) 
project, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's (ADF&G) Chinook 
Salmon Stock Assessment and Research Plan (ADF&G Chinook Salmon 
Research Team 2013), and the research program of the Division of 
Subsistence, ADF&G.

        Harvest monitoring and assessment of subsistence 
            fisheries. A collaborative review of Alaska's subsistence 
            fisheries harvest monitoring programs concluded that 
            ``collection of accurate harvest data is an essential 
            component of any effective resource management program'' 
            (Fall and Shanks 2000:B-8). The review developed guiding 
            principles as well as recommendations for effective 
            monitoring programs. Many of these recommendations remain 
            to be implemented. Research needs include:

        There are significant gaps in Alaska's current 
            subsistence salmon harvest monitoring programs: post season 
            harvest surveys in the Kuskokwim Area are not fully funded 
            and do not include all communities; there is no annual 
            program in the Kotzebue District; and there is no program 
            in the Arctic District, where new salmon fisheries are 
            developing as a result of the expanding range for salmon 
            stocks.

        Few current subsistence harvest monitoring programs 
            include subsistence fishers' assessments of the performance 
            of the fishery; for example, if adequate harvests were 
            achieved.

        There is very limited evaluation of the subsistence 
            harvest estimates resulting from current monitoring 
            programs; some programs are limited by incomplete 
            participation by all users and/or failure to account for 
            all sources of salmon for home use.

        There is increasing interest among managers and users 
            in in-season collection of subsistence salmon harvest data 
            to aid in in-season management and evaluation of management 
            actions, but little critical investigation has taken place 
            to explore how best to implement such efforts to minimize 
            respondent fatigue and coordinate with existing programs.

  2.  Patterns and trends in Alaska's subsistence salmon fisheries. 
        There is presently no coordinated effort to identify and 
        evaluate long-term patterns and trends in Alaska's subsistence 
        salmon and personal use fisheries. Causes of annual and more 
        long-term changes to harvest quantities, species composition, 
        effort, and participation are not well understood, but are 
        likely related to stock status, access issues, social and 
        economic conditions, regulations, or personal factors (see 
        Magdanz et al., 2005). Understanding these factors is 
        especially important in the context of the effects of climate 
        change on salmon stocks and fisheries. Research needs include:

        A SASAP working group identified social indicators of 
            well-being of Alaska communities as they relate to salmon 
            harvests and uses. There are, however, currently no 
            projects funded to follow through on this. A primary need 
            is projects that select key indicators for tracking and 
            further analysis.

        One indicator of trends in subsistence fisheries is how 
            harvest levels compare to ``the amount reasonably necessary 
            for subsistence'' (ANS) which the Alaska Board of Fisheries 
            is required to establish for each salmon stock with 
            customary and traditional subsistence uses. Research is 
            needed to evaluate ANS as a tool for assessing how well 
            subsistence opportunities are being provided in Alaska's 
            management system.

        Because subsistence salmon harvests occur within the 
            mixed subsistence/cash economy of rural Alaska, research is 
            needed on the interrelationships between commercial and 
            subsistence fisheries in terms of knowledge, access, 
            equipment, and income.

  3.  Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), local traditional 
        knowledge (LTK), and indigenous knowledge (IK) about Alaska 
        salmon. Although this topic is a component of human dimensions 
        research, there is strong overlap with stock assessments, in-
        season management, and run forecasting. As noted in ADF&G's 
        Chinook Salmon Stock Assessment and Research Plan (pages 16-
        17):

                LTK can provide detailed observations about abundance, 
                distribution, run timing, condition, and habitat, often 
                focused on specific locations and informed by 
                considerable time depth. In addition to empirical 
                information, LTK raises research questions and 
                hypotheses for further investigation and testing. Thus 
                LTK studies seek both to document local knowledge and 
                to involve the holders of this knowledge directly in 
                applying this information to inform scientific 
                inquiries and fisheries management.

    Key data gaps, which can be investigated through case study 
research, relate to:

        How can TEK/LTK be integrated into the management 
            process, both in-season and long-term?

        How can TEK/LTK be effectively and respectfully 
            communicated to managers and the public?

        What are the guidelines for respectfully evaluating the 
            utility of TEK/LTK into salmon management?

  4.  Governance systems for Alaska salmon fisheries. Governance 
        includes the laws, procedures, and organizations that manage 
        and regulate salmon fisheries. Research that evaluates the 
        performance of these systems may identify improvements in terms 
        of public participation, data collection, communication, and 
        understanding. The databases developed by SASAP's Governance 
        Working Group created numerous possibilities for research. 
        These databases organized information related to the content 
        and outcome of proposals submitted to the Alaska Board of 
        Fisheries; board membership; meeting locations; location of 
        advisory committees; and the number of advisory committee 
        meetings by type of committee. Research needs include 
        investigation of:

        What are the impediments to the public's effective 
            involvement in the regulatory program?

        What are the most effective ways for ADF&G to support 
            the public process?

        How can management and regulatory decisions (resulting 
            from the board process as well as in-season management) be 
            best communicated to a diverse public?

    Although not a topic for research, adequate funding of advisory 
committees is also an issue for Alaska's salmon management system, 
especially fiscal support for those committees in rural areas serving 
multiple remote communities and ADF&G participation in these meetings.
    Key Themes: The following are components essential to human 
dimensions research on Alaska's salmon systems.

        Partnerships between managers and stakeholders: they 
            promote understanding of multiple ways of knowing, 
            encourage sharing of skill sets, and help reach consensus 
            on key findings.

        Local involvement in all phases and types of research, 
            including: identifying researchable topics, preparing 
            proposals, conducting research, and communicating results.

        Communication of findings in multiple formats, for 
            diverse audiences.

        Assessments of study findings: all findings (biological 
            and human dimensions) should be available for review and 
            discussion.

        Avoid duplication of effort to effectively use 
            available funds and prevent multiple, potentially 
            incompatible sets of findings.
References cited
    ADF&G Chinook Salmon Research Team. 2013. Chinook Salmon Stock 
Assessment and Research Plan, 2013. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 
Special Publication No. 13-01. Anchorage. http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/
FedAidPDFs/SP13-01.pdf

    Fall, James A. and Roland Shanks. 2000. Statewide Subsistence 
Fisheries Harvest Monitoring Strategy (Division of Subsistence, Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game Special Publication No. SP2017-10) http://
www.adfg.alaska.gov/specialpubs/SP2_SP2017-010.pdf

    Magdanz, James et al., 2005. Patterns and Trends in Subsistence 
Salmon Harvests, Norton Sound and Port Clarence, 1994-2003. Alaska 
Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence Technical Paper 
No. 294. Nome and Juneau. http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/techpap/tp294.pdf

                                  [all]