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 in 2007 to focus on maximizing the production, fishery and conservation benefits of the programs at the established release sites, and was renamed Select Area Fisheries Enhancement to reflect that change. This FFY 2025 contract period maintains that same project focus: effective net pen production and releases of salmon to maximize fishery harvest of target stocks while minimizing harvest of non-target stocks.

The FFY 2024 SAFE project budget for the three project sponsors combined was $2,310,086 and the WDFW portion (23%) is $538,033. Fish production costs comprise the majority of that budget, followed by efforts to evaluate and report on project objectives, while lesser amounts are spent to manage and monitor the commercial fisheries and to administer the project. Hatchery reform actions designated by NOAA Fisheries to promote conservation and recovery of ESA-listed salmon resulted in a new stock source for the WDFW SAFE fish production program starting in 2018, changing from early stock Coho to late stock Coho. The final release of early stock was in May of 2017, and late stock Coho (Grays River stock) were released in May of 2018 through 2024. The FFY 2025 WDFW SAFE contract will again fund the production of 400,000 late stock Coho smolts to be released from the Deep River net pens in May 2025. Mitchell Act funding will continue to produce up to 300,000 additional late stock Coho salmon smolts for release from the Deep River net pens. Another recent fish production change was the re-initiation of spring Chinook releases from Deep River net pens in the fall of 2018 and spring and fall of 2019 through 2024 using Washington State Mitchell Act funding. The first adult returns from those releases were assessed by monitoring the fishery in Deep River in the springs of 2021 through 2024. The production, marking and release of late stock Coho from the Deep River pens is a primary objective for the FFY 2025 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 2025 contract objective.

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, 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 is planned to cover the period of October 2023 through September 2025, produced in collaboration with ODFW and CCF. Completion and submission of that report will be an important work element and deliverable for the FY 2026 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 site access to the Deep River net pens, and completing quarterly status reports for BPA using their online project management application, PISCES Web (CBFish.org).