Goal:  
The goal of this project is to facilitate activities of the estuary/ocean RME subgroup as it coordinates implementation of the estuary RME plan in FY05.

Background and Needs:  
Comprehensive research, monitoring, and evaluation (RME) are called for in the National Marine Fisheries Service's 2000 Biological Opinion (BiOp) on Operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System and the Federal Columbia River Salmon Recovery Strategy (All-H Strategy).  Toward this end, NOAA Fisheries and the federal Action Agencies have developed a RME Implementation Plan (IP) Workgroup.  The goal of this workgroup, as its name suggests, is to develop a RME Implementation Plan that satisfies the All-H Strategy and fulfills Action Items in the BIOP's Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RPA).  The IP Workgroup for RME is composed of a Technical/Policy Oversight Group and six subgroups: Status Monitoring, Effectiveness Research, Hydro, Hatchery, Data Management, and Estuary/Ocean (EOS).  In September 2002, BPA contracted with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to facilitate the EOS during FY03 and FY04.  This work resulted in an RME plan  for the estuary and ocean (Johnson et al. 2004).
The purpose of this scope of work is to continue estuary/ocean subgroup RME activities in FY05 as the estuary RME plan is implemented and coordinated.

The Federal BiOp RME efforts for habitat monitoring are currently being coordinated through the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP), an assemblage of federal, state, and tribal agencies whose goal is "…to coordinate important scientific information at the appropriate scales needed to inform public policy and resource management decisions."   PNAMP's geographic scope includes the Columbia basin and its Columbia River estuary (PNAMP 2004).  Most of PNAMP's  efforts to date, however, have involved tributary habitat areas.  In FY05, the PNAMP coordination efforts may extend into  the estuary. The estuary/ocean RME subgroup could play a significant role in this expanding effort.  The role of the estuary/ocean RME subgroup is evolving as the RME effort in the estuary and the entire Columbia basin matures.  In FY05, there will be even wider coordination as the estuary RME plan the subgroup developed in FY03 and FY04 is implemented.

Citations:  
1.  Johnson, G., H. Diefenderfer, T. Berquam, B. Ebberts, C. Tortorici, and J. Wilcox.  2004.  Plan for Research Monitoring and Evaluation of Salmon in the Columbia River Estuary.  Final draft prepared by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration.  Portland, Oregon.  July 2, 2004.
2.  Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership.  2004.  Recommendations for coordinating state, federal, and tribal watershed and salmon monitoring programs in the Pacific Northwest.  Draft. Portland, Oregon.  January 6, 2004.