The Select Area Fisheries Evaluation (SAFE) Project was initiated and funded by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in 1993, following the recommendation of the Northwest Power Planning Council to investigate the potential for terminal fisheries on the lower Columbia River. A primary goal of the project was to develop efficient terminal fishery harvest opportunities on salmon in the Lower Columbia while minimizing impacts to non-target stocks, particularly the upriver stocks under federal protection by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Extensive evaluation of various sites, stocks, and rearing and release methods in the years since 1993 resulted in the current SAFE area production and fishery projects at four sites: Youngs Bay, Blind Slough and Tongue Point in Oregon, and Deep River in Washington. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is the SAFE project co-sponsor managing the Washington program sited at Deep River while the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Clatsop County Fisheries (CCF) are co-managers of the Oregon SAFE program sites. The project was restructured and renamed to Select Area Fisheries Enhancement in 2007 to reflect increased project emphasis on maximizing the production, fishery and conservation benefits of the programs at each site. The emphasis on net pen production and releases to maximize fishery harvest of target stocks while minimizing harvest of non-target stocks remains through this current FY 2016 contract period.
  
The WDFW share of the $1,908,145 FY 2015 BPA budget for the project is $515,357 (27%), the majority (60%) of which goes toward fish production and fish marking.  Managing and monitoring the commercial and recreational fisheries consumes about 10% of those funds while another 20% are used to evaluate and report on project goals and about 10% of the funds are spent on project administration. WDFW’s current goal for BPA-SAFE funded production is 400,000 early stock coho salmon smolts to be released from Deep River net pens in the spring of 2016. An additional 350,000 coho and up to 1,000,000 fall Chinook from reprogrammed Mitchell Act production will also be released from the Deep River Net pens under Mitchell Act funding.

The production, marking and release of early stock coho from the Deep River pens remains the primary objective for the FY 2016 contract period. Since the ultimate goal of that production is adult harvest, sampling and assessing the abundance and stock composition of the catch during the fall fisheries is also a key 2016 objective. Spring fisheries will also continue to be monitored in Deep River to document the harvest of ongoing returns from past releases as well as strays. Objectives to evaluate other project goals include assessments of:  the effect of the net pen rearing site on the local environment, the numbers of SAFE-origin adults that escaped fisheries and were found in local Washington tributaries (e.g., Grays and Elochoman rivers), and the numbers of Deep River-origin adults caught in Deep River versus other fisheries and hatchery facilities. Results of the production and assessment goals will be documented in the next progress report that will cover  the period of October 2012 through September 2015, produced in collaboration with ODFW and CCF. Completion and submission of that report will be a major work element and deliverable for the FY 2016 contract. Additional coordination with ODFW and CCF staff will continue to occur during bi-monthly meetings and in additional meetings and communications as needed to achieve cohesive management of production, fisheries, and conservation goals of the overall SAFE project. Project administration activities for WDFW will include documentation of the annual Hatchery Production Plan, updating (as needed) the Hatchery and Genetic Management Plan (HGMP; for ESA compliance), establishing the annual agreement for the net pen site access, and completing periodic status reports for BPA using their online project management application, PISCES.