Current in-season information is looking good for Fraser sockeye, the in-season information to date shows trends at or above p50 for Early Summers, while Early Stuarts have exceeded the p50 forecast. The test fishery program has ramped up their effort as most test fisheries have started, including the seines. It was noted that the seine test fishery do not seem to be showing similar abundances as the gillnet test fisheries. This is not unexpected, as there are a number of differences in catchability in the seines compared to gillnets at the current abundance of sockeye, and operational challenges for the seiners to put out full effort (mechanical issues, etc.). We will be watching the differences in catch closely over the next week to see if it is a real difference in CPUE or simply an implementation issue.
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http://darac.sg-host.com/wp-content/uploads/20180727_FRAFS_Watershed_Talk.pdf
