LGL Limited was contracted by the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) in May 2022 to work with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) stock assessment biologists to update the core datasets, database systems, and analysis tools needed to produce annual abundance estimates for Pacific Fishery Management Statistical Area (SA) 3 and Nass River salmon stocks using the best available information from 2018 to 2022. This project builds on previous salmon work supported by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), the State of the Salmon Program, DFO, and the PSF to produce the 1980-2010 estimates of escapement, catch and run size for each BC salmon conservation unit and the extension of the time-series for Area 3 salmon CUs to cover the years from 1954-2010. Further updates extended these time-series to 2014 and 2017.

In addition to updating Area 3 salmon abundance estimates, LGL Limited was also contracted to work with BC Fisheries stock assessment biologists from the Skeena Region, Smithers BC, to obtain the best escapement estimates for Nass River summer-run steelhead, model marine harvests, estimate total returns, summarize analyses procedures, data inputs, and outputs for estimating summer-run steelhead abundances from 1994 to 2022. The analyses of the Nass River summer-run steelhead abundance estimates would then be used to support visualization of the annual returns on PSF’s Pacific Salmon Explorer (PSE) subject to the approval of the Nisga’a-Canada-BC Joint Fisheries Management Committee (NJFMC) who facilitate the implementation of Nass River salmon and steelhead fisheries provisions of the Nisga’a Treaty.