Challenges in Monitoring Outmigrating Juvenile Salmonids.

Much attention and recognition has been given to monitoring outmigrating juvenile salmonids because of the valuable information it provides to address a wide range of uncertainties. These may include, but are not limited to, estimating freshwater production, evaluating habitat modifications, forecasting adult returns, estimating marine survival, and developing stock-recruitment relationships. However, collecting this information is often difficult due to stochastic riverine conditions, diverse life history strategies, low abundances of at risk populations. Learning how others have attempted to address these challenges will provide insight for more effective and efficient juvenile salmonids monitoring programs.

The objective of this symposium is to provide a forum to share experiences and ideas relating to the challenges in trapping outmigrating juvenile salmonids and estimating their abundance. Topics may include trapping methods, trap design and modification, study design, developments in abundance and variance estimation, accounting for trap outages, and estimation validation.