Salmonid Monitoring Protocol for the San Francisco Bay Area Network Narrative and Appendices and Standard Operating Procedures - Version 4.0

Reichmuth, Michael; Ketcham, Brannon; Fong, Darren; Carlisle, Sarah; Brown, Erin; Koenen, Marcus

This protocol documents the methodology used to monitor salmonids in freshwater streams annually at Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore.Although the sampling is designed to focus on the federally and state endangered coho salmon,data are also collected on federally threatened steelhead trout (O. mykiss) and any other species incidentally encountered during sampling. The protocol is divided into two parts. Part I is the protocol narrative and Appendixes. This provides the background information, justification, monitoring objectives, an overview of the sampling design, expected analyses and reports, and the operational budget. Part II covers the Standard Operating Procedures for all field work, data management, data analyses and reporting,and training and safety. The monitoring objectives addressed by this protocol include the following: 1. Determine long-term trends in distribution and abundance, size (length) of spawning coho salmon by counting numbers of spawners, carcasses, and redds along reaches at Olema, Pine Gulch, Redwood, and Cheda Creeks. 2. Determine long-term trends in abundance and condition of smolt coho salmon by conducting spring smolt trapping near mouths of Olema, Pine Gulch, and Redwood Creeks. 3. Determine long-term trends in distribution and abundance and condition of juvenile coho salmon by conducting summer basin wide surveys (general systematic surveys [GSS]) at Olema, Pine Gulch, and Redwood Creeks. 4. Determine long term trends in summer density, size, and age composition of coho salmon at preexisting index reaches at Olema, Pine Gulch, and Redwood Creeks. 5. Identify gross changes in habitat (pool:riffle) in Olema, Pine Gulch, and Redwood Creeks during basin wide GSS surveys. Multiple life stage monitoring is conducted during: a. the winter to sample coho spawners and redds, b. the spring to sample smolt out migration, and c. summer to sample juvenile population abundance. This approach has provided data for regional interpretation of coho trends in survivorship and is intended for use in further regional comparisons. This protocol builds on historic monitoring efforts that have focused on spawners at Redwood Creek since the 1940s. Much of the smolt and juvenile sampling has been conducted since the early to mid 1990s. Despite these long-term data sets, one of the challenges of sampling coho sampling is their 3-year life cycle. Adult coho generally do not return to a stream to spawn until their third year. As a result, there are three distinct year-classes. Although nine years of sampling exists for some creeks, it reflects only three data points for each coho year class. Preliminary analyses presented in SOP 10: Data Summaries and Analyses demonstrate that between 1994 and 2007, spawner populations of two year classes have remained relatively stable and one year class has shown an increase. Sampling during the last three years, however,indicate very few returning spawners across the Central California region (Miller 2010). The state of California has strong interest in both the coho salmon and steelhead trout populations. Recent returns have been very low and both commercial and recreational salmon fishing along the California Coast was closed in 2008 and 2009. As a result of this concern,approximately half of the funding to conduct this monitoring program has come from the state through grants submitted to the Point Reyes National Seashore Association.

Salmonid Monitoring Protocol for the San Francisco Bay Area Network Narrative and Appendices and Standard Operating Procedures - Version 4.0

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