Consultant's Report: Preliminary Review of Washington's Ocean Sampling Program (OSP)

During the two-day meeting in Montesano, Washington, on November 8–9, 2010, we met with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) staff to discuss WDFW’s Ocean Sampling Program. In this document, we will provide our initial reaction to the design and estimation procedures we learned about during the meeting. We begin by briefly summarizing our overall reaction to OSP: it is a welldesigned and executed program. The geography of the Washington coast offers distinct advantages, including a very small number of sites from which boat launches are practical. There is also limited shore and private access, so the spatial allocation of sampling effort is relatively straightforward. Anglers’ required compliance with WDFW sampling efforts is another attractive feature of the program. The program has a large and thorough sampling effort, with fine spatial and temporal stratification. The geography of sites makes it possible to obtain high-quality measures of effort, via exit counts for high-pressure sites, or