State of the Salmon

SoS - Agency Partnerships Initiative

Salmon Data Access Working Group:
Meeting 1: Nanaimo, BC (November 3-4, 2008)


Utkolok Scientists with net

The first Salmon Data Access Working Group (SalDAWG) meeting was held in Nanaimo, BC. In addition to the project teams from the State of the Salmon-Agency Partnerships Initiative (SoS-API), attendees hailed from a variety of organizations from Alaska to California, including NOAA Fisheries, the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis, the BC Ministry of Environment, and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region of ADFG.

Folks gathered to share their knowledge of useful salmon data management standards and tools with a very specific reason in mind: to help shape the ADF&G, DFO, and ODFW projects that got underway in 2008. The meeting was packed with presentations and discussions; as a result the project teams for the SoS-API took away some fresh ideas and helpful contacts.

Presentations covered existing work being done in different areas of data management up and down the western coast of North America.

Results from the facilitated exercise on "how to not reinvent the wheel" were insightful and are recreated here for you to explore.

We then broke into small groups to delve into a handful of topics like analytical tools and ontologies to map where we are now and where we need to go.

From all of this it became abundantly clear that there are many related efforts underway at local and regional scales and no shortage of ideas for ensuring salmon data are reusable by others. Nonetheless, opportunities to demonstrate innovations and see them incorporated into management use are fewer and farther between. Without much evidence that there are more efficient or robust ways to capture, process, and share salmon data, there are few incentives to change current practices. Consequently the projects in the SoS-API will play a valuable role, piloting new approaches instead of just discussing them.

Meeting Resources


Agenda and Notes

Presentations


Facilitated Exercises

Survey

At the Nanaimo meeting we started gathering basic info about how different user groups interact with natural resources information and each other to gain insight into ways we can help connect folks working on similar issues. This survey is online and open until further notice. Results gathered to date will be shared at the next SalDAWG meeting. So don't hesitate, if you haven't yet taken the survey, take a few minutes to contribute your two cents at http://tinyurl.com/ap5qe2


Interested in being part of SalDAWG? Want to learn more about any of the projects or find out how you can support our work? at 503.467.0791

Project Overviews

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

We're working with the ODFW Research Lab in Corvallis to create the ODFW Salmon & Steelhead Recovery Tracker, a database and web site designed to:

• Make it easier for ODFW staff to report on their progress towards meeting salmon conservation goals.

• Provide public access to frequently requested data and information on salmon and aquatic habitat.

While the site is currently focused on coastal Coho, there is strong interest in expanding the site's geographic and taxonomic scope to reach statewide.

Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP)

SoS is partnered with PNAMP to create an online forum for capturing and reviewing best available methods for monitoring aquatic habitat and species. We are developing a user friendly web-based tool that reflects the unique environs driving the formulation, testing, and endorsement of field techniques. We expect this work to accelerate agency adoption of standards and improve the power of resulting observational data to tell dependable stories about the health of our environment.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)

We have initiated a novel partnership between the WDFW and the NCEAS at UC Santa Barbara that's designed to significantly advance the management community's handling of salmon population data by bringing in techniques and expertise from the pioneering field of ecoinformatics.

Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada

We're working with DFO staff at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo to develop a summarized catch and escapement data set by Conservation Unit (CU) to:

• Ensure DFO researchers have ready access to standard, core information needed to assess biological status of CUs.

• Establish the groundwork for eventual public access to escapement, catch rate, and CU status information in BC and Yukon.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

ADFG's Copper River and Prince William Sound Commercial Fisheries office is working with us to develop databases and web applications to:

• Make it easier for ADF&G area managers to enter, edit, retrieve, and analyze escapement and biological data.

• Provide public access to frequently requested data and information.

YOU ARE HERE: stateofthesalmon.org » Initiatives » Agency Partnerships » SalDAWG Nanaimo Meeting