Comment:

The ISRP appreciates the efforts of the proponents to obtain user feedback through surveys and conferences as well as from this project's steering committee and users like DART. The project would likely benefit from even more effort to obtain user feedback including developing an action plan for evaluating, collecting, and responding to user suggestions for improvement of the data management, interrogation system, and coordination of deliverables. This feedback should improve the valuable services provided the project.

1. Objectives, Significance to Regional Programs, and Technical Background

This project fills an essential need in the region by collecting and maintaining data. PTAGIS is used by all BPA-funded projects where PIT tags are a component of the research or monitoring, and it also contains data from many projects not funded by BPA. The project has a rich data portal.

The overall objective of the PIT-tag information system is to provide a source of regional scale PIT tag data. These data are used to detect adult fish in ladders, evaluate adult survival, and monitor hatchery effectiveness. This system has now been in operation for many years and is well established. The project provides information as needed for various groups in the region. The measurable goal for the system is to collect 100% valid data and provide those data promptly with downtime of not more than one percent.

2. Results and Adaptive Management

The proposal states that the project does not perform RM&E but rather provides a reference data set that is used by others. Results are provided in terms of informing and guiding policy decisions through PIT-tag data management, installation and coordination of large scale interrogation systems, and coordination in support of PTAGIS software systems. Adaptive management is not apparent in the proposal, but creative adaptation to advances in equipment and scope of interrogation systems is evidenced.

3. Methods: Project Relationships, Work Types, and Deliverables

The proposal describes activities that are used to achieve the objectives in general terms. Deliverables are related to scope of work elements that are referenced in the FY19 contract report.

This is not a research and monitoring project per se; however, the PTAGIS database managed by this project is critical to many monitoring and research programs throughout the Columbia River Basin. These data can be used to address many of the Council’s management questions and high-level indicators, particularly juvenile and adult salmon survival through the hydrosystem. The data are fully described, including metadata and methodologies, are capable of being aggregated to higher scales, and are made readily available by this project to the public. The ISRP commends the project proponents for including the detailed comprehensive materials (including tables, figures, photos, schematics, etc.) used in illustrating the upgraded elaborate PIT tag systems.

With respect to determining the impact of ocean conditions on Columbia River Basin salmonids, this project could improve coordination of recovery of PIT tag data from BPA-funded ocean research projects, from Chinook salmon bycatch in marine commercial groundfish fisheries (US West Coast, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands regions), and from marine commercial, tribal, and sport fisheries. The major accomplishment of this project is their high-quality management of the PTAGIS database. The project scale and resource commitment for objective (Objective 1) are appropriate. However, it is not clear that Objectives 2 and 3, which involve installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment at field locations and the potential major expansion of these objectives in the next 5 years, are necessary objectives for this particular project. For example, to improve innovation and potentially cost effectiveness, the Council and BPA might explore an open, competitive bidding process for contracting PIT tag equipment purchase, installation, and maintenance. The resources devoted to project administration, management and coordination (Objectives 4 and 5) seem high. Why are not many of these activities supported by existing PSMFC infrastructure and project overhead?

In the 2007-2009 review, the ISRP asked to see in the next proposal a more fully transparent history of fish handling. In response the proponents indicated that they developed a workshop process to coordinate different fish handling protocols. Perhaps the workshop forum is a way to resolve this issue, but the workshop proceedings and summaries should be recorded annually. The ISRP did not see any workshop documents referenced.

This is not a research and monitoring project per se; however, the PTAGIS database managed by this project is critical to many monitoring and research programs throughout the Columbia River Basin. These data can be used to address many of the Council’s management questions and high-level indicators, particularly juvenile and adult salmon survival through the hydrosystem. The data are fully described, including metadata and methodologies, are capable of being aggregated to higher scales, and are made readily available by this project to the public. The ISRP commends the project proponents for including the detailed comprehensive materials (including tables, figures, photos, schematics, etc.) used in illustrating the upgraded elaborate PIT tag systems. With respect to determining the impact of ocean conditions on Columbia River Basin salmonids, this project could improve coordination of recovery of PIT tag data from BPA-funded ocean research projects, from Chinook salmon bycatch in marine commercial groundfish fisheries (US West Coast, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands regions), and from marine commercial, tribal, and sport fisheries. The major accomplishment of this project is their high-quality management of the PTAGIS database. The project scale and resource commitment for objective (Objective 1) are appropriate. However, it is not clear that Objectives 2 and 3, which involve installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment at field locations and the potential major expansion of these objectives in the next 5 years, are necessary objectives for this particular project. For example, to improve innovation and potentially cost effectiveness, the Council and BPA might explore an open, competitive bidding process for contracting PIT tag equipment purchase, installation, and maintenance. The resources devoted to project administration, management and coordination (Objectives 4 and 5) seem high. Why are not many of these activities supported by existing PSMFC infrastructure and project overhead? In the 2007-2009 review, the ISRP asked to see in the next proposal a more fully transparent history of fish handling. In response the proponents indicated that they developed a workshop process to coordinate different fish handling protocols. Perhaps the workshop forum is a way to resolve this issue, but the workshop proceedings and summaries should be recorded annually. The ISRP did not see any workshop documents referenced.

This is a high priority project that deserves continued funding. However, this "fundable" recommendation is qualified because the project is lacking a detailed description of the comprehensive data model and a more specific description of metadata development to date. Funding of this project should be conditioned on the project sponsor addressing this issue. This problem has been pointed out in previous ISRP and ISAB reviews, and progress has not been reported. Specifically, in the 2003 Mainstem/Systemwide Review, the ISRP found that a weakness in the data retrieval system of PITAGIS was the ability to determine how PIT tagged fish were handled or their rearing history prior to release. The ISRP recommendation to develop descriptive metadata for the entire history of each tagged fish has not been addressed, and the proposal only states that they are working on a comprehensive data model to allow better tracking of projects and organizations over time, and it should be ready to implement by the fall of 2006.

Other comments:

The sponsors of this continuing project would benefit from feedback on the quality of the PIT tag information and accessibility -- user satisfaction. A user satisfaction survey should be initiated.

The project sponsors should coordinate with NOAA Fisheries, the sponsors of proposal #200700900 - A Spatially Explicit & Web-accessible Database for Managing the Impacts of Expanding Colonial Waterbird Populations on Juvenile Salmonids (Oncorhynchus species) in the Columbia River Basin. The main problem identified in the NOAA Fisheries proposal seems to be a data access issue. Most of the data to be loaded into the proposed database are already in the existing system (PTAGIS) (PSMFC, 2003). It is not clear what the problem with accessing data in PTAGIS might be. However, taking it as given that there is a problem, adequate communication between sponsors may alleviate this problem and avoid future unnecessary duplication.

The project history section is the strongest section of the proposal including a good overview of the project history, effectiveness, growth, and addition of available interrogation sites.