North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission

The NPAFC Convention area includes the waters of the North Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas (Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk), north of 33°N Latitude in international waters beyond the 200-mile zones of coastal states. Although not part of the Convention area, member nations may conduct scientific activities south of 33°N Latitude beyond the 200-mile zone.[4]

Anadromous fish covered under the Convention include Pacific salmon and steelhead trout:[5]

• Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)
• Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
• Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)
• Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)
• Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
• Cherry salmon (Oncorhynchus masou)
• Steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Following the conclusion of WWII and the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1952, Canada, Japan, and the United States of America entered into a trilateral fisheries convention known as the International Convention for the High Seas Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean. The Convention was signed by all three parties in Tokyo on 9 May 1952 and entered into force on 12 June 1953, thereby creating the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission (INPFC). INPFC nations worked to ensure the maximum sustained productivity of fishery resources in the North Pacific Ocean while encouraging conservation[6] and contributed to the understanding of anadromous fish species, groundfishes, crabs, and marine mammals in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea by publishing scientific bulletins, annual fisheries statistics, and annual reports.[7]

The International Convention for the High Seas Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean was especially important to Japan, as it helped re-establish the Japanese fishing fleet grounded by the Allied Occupation and provided access to fishing grounds northeast of Hokkaido in the North Pacific.[8] In addition to re-mobilizing the Japanese fishing fleet, however, the Convention established a western abstention line—the westernmost limit the Japanese fleet could fish in the North Pacific Ocean.

The INPFC treaty worked in concert with multiple bi-lateral treaties between Canada, Japan, the USSR, and the US to create a tapestry of policies that formed a North Pacific fisheries management regime.[9] The first significant change to the INPFC treaty came in 1978 after a year of negotiations between members about access to salmon outside of a country's potential Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)—a concept developed at the third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) in 1973. Most provisions of the original treaty remained in place and a new abstention line at 175° east longitude was developed for Japanese salmon fisherman.[8] The conclusion of UNCLOS III in 1982 and ongoing discussions of a moratorium on pelagic salmon fishing in the North Pacific prompted calls for a re-negotiation of an international salmon treaty by Canada, the US, and the USSR. Japan at first objected to these calls, believing the INPFC framework currently in place to be sufficient, but agreed to re-negotiate a treaty in fear of being excluded from international salmon talks.[8]

On 11 February 1992, Canada, Japan, Russian Federation, and United States of America signed the Convention for the Conservation of Anadromous Stocks in the North Pacific Ocean. The INPFC dissolved on 16 February 1993 in favor of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission.

The inaugural meeting of the NPAFC was held at the Ottawa Conference Centre in Ottawa, Canada on 24 February 1993, and delegates from Canada, Japan, Russian Federation, and United States of America participated. In accordance with the Convention, the NPAFC adopted rules of procedure, financial rules, and established an organizational structure for the Commission. The Canadian delegation offered to house the Secretariat at the University of British Columbia free of cost, which the Commission accepted. To aid in the transition from INPFC to NPAFC, the Commission decided INPFC funds be used to complete any outstanding INPFC projects and help fund initial operating costs of the NPAFC. The inaugural meeting also decided on the first provisional budget and selected an interim President & Vice-President on ex officio basis until the First Annual Meeting in November, 1993. Finally, a logo committee was created to design the first NPAFC logo which was selected at the First Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.[10] The First President and Vice-President took office 1 November 1993.

On 27 May 2003, the Republic of Korea acceded to the convention in accordance with Article XVIII of the Convention and became the fifth member of the NPAFC.

Directed fishing for anadromous stocks in the Convention Area is prohibited, unless for scientific purposes with prior approval from the NPAFC.[11] Directed fisheries and stock assessment activities are conducted by each member nation within their territorial waters. Catch and Hatchery statistics from these activities are reported to NPAFC. Recently, the Commission has created electronic data files that combine catch and hatchery statistics with time-series data and these data files are available to the public.

Tagging of salmon and steelhead with disk tags on high seas research cruises has been conducted since the 1950s in the North Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, and the Bering Sea.[12] Tag recoveries are used to investigate ocean distribution, migration, and growth of salmon at sea. Some fish may also carry an electronic tag which provides information on the behavior of individual fish, including swimming depth, and additional information on the salmon's habitat.

The purpose of the Committee on Scientific Research and Statistics (CSRS) is to provide scientific information to the NPAFC on the state of anadromous stocks and any ecologically related species within the Convention Area, promote the collection, analysis, and exchange of scientific data and specimens, coordinate international efforts to conserve anadromous stocks, review scientific research programs in the Convention Area and adjacent waters, and make recommendations to the NPAFC.[13][14] The meetings of the CSRS are held during the annual meetings of the NPAFC.

The CSRS has the following sub-committees and working groups:[14]

• Science Sub-Committee
• Working Group on Stock Assessment
• Working Group on Salmon Marking
• Working Group on Stock Identification
• International Year of the Salmon Working Group
• BASIS Working Group (discontinued 2015)
• Working Group on Salmon Tagging (discontinued 2016)

The NPAFC Science Plan is a long-term plan for collaborative scientific research that is drafted by the Science Sub-Committee and reviewed and recommended to the Commission by the CSRS.[15] The overall goal of the current NPAFC Science Plan (NPAFC Science Plan 2016–2020) is to understand changes in Pacific salmon productivity in a changing climate.[16] Under this overall goal, there are five research themes:

1. Status of Pacific Salmon and Steelhead Trout
2. Pacific Salmon and Steelhead Trout in a Changing North Pacific Ocean
3. New Technologies
4. Management Systems
5. Integrated Information Systems

NPAFC members identify IUU fishing vessels by utilizing satellite reconnaissance and performing aerial and cutter patrols. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada assists US Coast Guard Cutters and USCG C130's by performing reconnaissance in CP-140 Aurora fix-winged aircraft over the east and central North Pacific.[20] The Japanese Coast Guard deploys Citation V aircraft and CG cutters to intercept IUU vessels, while Russia deploys Kamov KA-27 helicopters and patrol vessels. All vessels and aircraft are assisted by RADARSAT-2 Earth Observation satellites.

From 1993–2015, the cooperative enforcement efforts of the NPAFC Parties resulted in the detection of 47 vessels conducting directed driftnet fishing operations for salmon in the Convention Area. Of those vessels, 20 were apprehended.[21] The largest apprehension of salmon occurred in 1997 during a joint Japanese-American enforcement operation where one hundred and twenty tons of salmon were confiscated from the vessel Nanao 55008.[22]

A complete list of vessel apprehensions may be found here.

• Enforcement Vehicles
• 
  CP-140 Aurora
• 
  Citation V
• 
  Kamov KA-27 Helix
• 
  USCG C130
• 
  Japanese Vessel
• 
  Russian Patrol Vessel
• 
  CG Cutters
• 
  RADARSAT

Through outreach, engagement, and education efforts, the IYS will create awareness and advance understanding of challenges facing salmon populations and the communities that are associated with them. These key components include improving public and political awareness of:

• Salmon's cultural, social, and economic importance
• The challenges salmon face from major environmental changes and human impacts[26]

In 2017, IYS, led by NPAFC in the Pacific and NASCO in the Atlantic, joined The Atlantic Salmon Trust in developing a framework for conceptualizing survival issues impacting Atlantic salmon during the freshwater migration phase and subsequent marine phases. The approach would take known historical data on salmon abundance and survival and construct a broad-scale model to quantify and partition the losses of salmon in freshwater and at sea. The goal of this will be to identify where and how mortality factors have changed between earlier periods of higher marine survival and the more recent/current low survival phase.[27] It aims to provide coherent guidance on how future research on survival can be identified and prioritized:

• The concept positions candidate mortality factors (Likely Suspects) within an overall spatio-temporal framework (the Likely Suspects Framework) covering the freshwater migration and marine phases of the life cycle. Key geographical areas and periods where mortality factors are known or thought to operate are characterized as ecosystem “domains”.
• Domains can be identified at various locations, ranging from freshwater to overwintering feeding areas, and will be associated with different mortality factors.[27]

This approach will be of interest to managers and policymakers at various levels, since mortality is a cumulative process, with salmon from each stock experiencing mortality at a series of ecosystem domains on the journey before returning to spawn. Management on the local and regional level can be adapted to reflect the known likely suspects, whether that includes habitat restoration, harvest restrictions, or enhancement opportunities.

The Likely Suspects Framework was developed as a Signature Project of the IYS initiative and was the first collaboration between Atlantic and Pacific researchers as part of the IYS.

An investment in research will also be stimulated by the initiative, which will and leave behind a legacy of knowledge, data/information systems, tools, and a new generation of scientists better equipped to provide timely advice to inform rational management of salmon and build resilience.

The research themes of the IYS have been identified as follows:[23][26]

• Status of Salmon: to understand the present status of salmon and their environment
• Salmon in a changing salmosphere: to understand and quantify the effects of natural environmental variability and anthropogenic factors affecting salmon distribution and abundance and to make projections of their future changes
• New Frontiers: to develop new technologies and analytical methods to advance salmon science and to explore the uncharted regions of the salmosphere
• Human Dimension: to investigate the cultural, social, and economic elements that depend upon sustainable salmon populations
• Information Systems: to develop an integrated archive of accessible electronic data collected during the IYS and tools to support future research

In February 2019, an International Gulf of Alaska Expedition was completed with 21 scientific personnel from five Pacific Rim countries, Canada, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States, aboard the chartered 62 m Russian R/V Professor Kaganovskiy. The expedition was organized by Dr. Richard J. Beamish, the Pacific Salmon Foundation and NPAFC with funding from private individuals, government agencies and NGOs. It was the first in decades to study salmon in the winter high seas and set a precedent for addressing gaps in our knowledge through survey work of salmon, plankton and physical conditions in the central Gulf of Alaska.[28]

Building on the single vessel expedition conducted from February-March 2019 in the Gulf of Alaska, a 2021 International Pan-Pacific Expedition has been proposed. If implemented, it will employ up to five research vessels operating simultaneously to survey the full breadth of the North Pacific Ocean in winter 2021. Similar to the 2019 voyage, these vessels would carry leading scientists from Canada, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States, all committed to answering questions about the mechanisms affecting the productivity and distribution of salmon. Aside from increasing the area surveyed, the 2021 Expedition would diversify data collection. Three to four vessels would cover a pan-Pacific grid while another would conduct fine scale research to provide greater detail for our understanding of how salmon interact with the high seas environment. In conjunction with the tentative 2021 winter surveys, NPAFC member countries would conduct coastal and high seas salmon surveys during the spring, summer and fall of 2020-2021. The 2021 Expedition has the potential to provide a platform for international collaborative ecosystem research to monitor the distribution, abundance and productivity of salmon to directly inform fisheries management and enforcement decisions to be made in an increasingly uncertain future.[28]

Both the completed 2019 and proposed 2021 Expeditions are Signature Projects of the IYS.

The focal year of the IYS was 2019, with the opening symposium occurring in late 2018, and activities lasting until 2022.[23]

• Science Plan 1995–96
• Science Plan 1997–98
• Science Plan 2001–2005
• NPAFC "Activities and Science Plan 2006-2010" Brochure
• Science Plan 2006–2010
• Science Plan 2011–2015
• Science Plan 2016–2022