194 



DRAFT 



Failure to Base Analyses on the Information Presented 



The report is largely a compilation of statistics and information that lacks any direct 

 correlation to the analyses and conclusions of the report. The use of statistics or 

 information to evaluate the relative importance of the environmental and management 

 factors is not documented nor apparent in the report. The conclusions appear to be 

 derived from an independent, subjective ranking of the factors that is not based upon 

 scientific information. 



An example of this problem exists in the discussion of fish harvest. This section 

 presents a variety of harvest statistics but does not provide analyses that evaluate the 

 relative contribution of this factor to the decline of salmonids. The report eventually 

 concludes, however, that overharvest is the greatest factor responsible for the decline 

 and lack of recovery of Oregon's anadromous salmonids (Table R-1). 



Information Inaccuracies 



The report contains a significant amount of incorrectly reported information, and 

 examples where the biology of fish populations in Oregon were poorly understood by 

 the authors. Inaccurate reporting of fisheries related statistics were prevalent in both 

 the tables and in the text of the report (see Appendix A). One example of the authors 

 misunderstanding of Oregon's fisheries resources is the numerous references to pink 

 salmon "declines". The report begins by noting that "Oregon pink salmon are virtually 

 nonexistent today... ' and attributes the "decline" of pink salmon to such factors as 

 overharvest and mining. These conclusions are based on the absence of this species in 

 ocean and inriver harvest statistics and does not recognize that pink salmon are not 

 indigenous to Oregon. Pink salmon are intercepted in ocean fisheries off Oregon in 

 odd-numbered years, and are occasionally observed straying into Oregon streams, but 

 the normal distributional range of this species is from approximately Skagit Bay, 

 Washington northward (Emmett et al. 1991). 



Inaccurate Interpretation or Reporting of Scientific Studies 



The report contains a number of examples where conclusions or data from the original 

 studies were inaccurately reported (see Appendix A). The inaccuracies included: (1) 

 citing conclusions that were not present in the original research, (2) citing only a 

 portion of the original authors conclusions, (3) citing statements that were in direct 

 conflict with the original study, and (4) citing information in a manner that was overtly 

 discouraged by the original authors. A significant number of these inaccuracies were 

 identified even though only a subset of the total literature citations were verified. 



Failure to use Rigorous and Scientifically Valid Method s to Analvze Data 



The report contained examples where information extracted from scientific studies were 

 analyzed in a manner that was not scientifically valid. Incorrect conclusions were then 

 derived from these calculations. For example, the questionable use of data was 

 common in the discussion concerning the loss of salmonids to marine mammal 

 predation. Calculations derived to estimate the annual consumption of salmonids by 



