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DRAFT 



prey. Whereas the whales that feed mostly on salmonids tend to be resident of the 

 northern Puget Sound and Vancouver Island area, these pinniped-eating whales are 

 more migratory. It is suspected that the Orca observed regularly off the Oregon coast, 

 and seasonally in coastal embayments, are part of these migratory, pinniped-eating 

 groups. Consumption of pinnipeds by Orca has been observed at several Oregon 

 locations in recent years. 



Marine Mammal-Fisheries Interactions Tpage 111) 



'Thus, seal damage at this rate for the 1990 commercial catch. . . would 

 have accounted for the loss of between 4,200 and 11, 200 fish from the 

 fishery...' 



The rates of pinniped damage to gillnet caught salmon are misused in this analysis. 

 The majority of fish in the studies referred to, while damaged (sometimes very slightly) 

 were still salable, were sold by the gillnetters and thus were not "lost", and, therefore, 

 carmot be compared to total commercial catches for the Columbia River. For example, 

 less than one per cent of all fish caught in the Columbia River 1991 winter fishery were 

 unsalable due to pinniped damage (Herczeg et al. 1991; ODFW unpublished data). 

 This information contradicts the "three to eight percent" values that were broadly 

 applied to the total annual Columbia River ^mon catches. 



'They [Chapman et al. \99l] Jurther concluded that a total of 8, 100 fish 

 had died as a result of these bites in 1990. . . " 



The report does not state how it was determined that 8, 100 fish "died" as a result of 

 "seal marks". The information that was presented provides the reader no rationale for 

 assessing the validity of this conclusion. However, the authors incorporate this 

 estimate into their analyses without further discussion. This data, while attributed to 

 issues related to Columbia River dams, also appears later in the report text and tables as 

 "Oregon salmonid loss to seal bites". 



Summary rpaees 111-112) 



This section repeats the estimates of marine mammal predation and compares these 

 estimates to fishery harvest statistics. These calculations are based upon simple 

 mathematics, erroneous and misinterpreted data, and the erroneous assumptions 

 identified in the previous portion of this review. The statistical significance of these 

 estimates is likely to be very low, and, therefore, should not be compared to fishery 

 harvest statistics that possess a much higher degree of accuracy. 



A-49 



