Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting
The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene three Peer Review Panel meetings to review methods for updating the Sacramento River Fall Chinook (SRFC) sp...
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION:
Notice of public meeting.
SUMMARY:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene three Peer Review Panel meetings to review methods for updating the Sacramento River Fall Chinook (SRFC) spawner abundance at maximum sustainable yield (SMSY) value. The Peer Review Panel meetings are open to the public.
DATES:
The first Peer Review Panel meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. (Pacific Time), and will continue on Thursday, August 20, 2026, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., or until business for each day has been completed.
The second Peer Review Panel meeting will be held on Friday, September 11, 2026, from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. (Pacific Time) each day, or until business for the day has been completed.
The third Peer Review Panel meeting will be held on Thursday, October 1, 2026, from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. (Pacific Time) each day, or until business for the day has been completed.
ADDRESSES:
The first Peer Review Panel meeting will be held in the Delta room at the Hilton Garden Inn Sacramento Airport Natomas, 20 Advantage Ct., Sacramento, CA 95834; telephone: (916) 579-7000. This meeting will have a web broadcast that provides the opportunity for remote public comment.
The second and third Peer Review Panel meetings will be held online via a web broadcast that provides the opportunity for remote public comment.
Specific meeting information, materials, visitor protocols (as applicable), and instructions for how to connect to the meeting remotely (including directions and system requirements) will be provided in the meeting announcement on the Pacific Council's website (see
www.pcouncil.org). In the event an outage occurs, or technical issues arise that impact the experience of remote attendees, we will attempt to resolve them but ultimately, we cannot guarantee that they will be resolved satisfactorily.
Pacific Council address:
Pacific Fishery Management Council, 7700 NE Ambassador Place, Suite 101, Portland, OR 97220-1384.
The purpose of the Peer Review Panel (Panel) meetings are to conduct a comprehensive review of the Sacramento River fall Chinook Workgroup's (SRWG's) work related to updating the SRFC SMSY
value, develop a recommendation for consideration by the Pacific Council and its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) for an approach to update the SMSY
value, if applicable, and compare the scientific merits of the recommendation to the scientific basis of the status quo SMSY
value.
The Panel consists of one chair and independent experts with expertise in large river ecosystems and the influence of inland environmental conditions on salmon population dynamics, including river capacity constraints, hydrologic drivers, and freshwater survival processes relevant to major interior river systems; salmon escapement estimation and participation in federally led watershed- or stock-assessment programs; West Coast salmon fisheries science, including assessment methodologies, harvest models, and scientific review processes; and reference point estimation methods.
The Pacific Council Chair has appointed one member each of the Pacific Council's SSC, Salmon Technical Team, and Salmon Advisory Subpanel to participate in the review as advisors.
No management actions or best scientific information available determinations will be decided by the Panel. The Panel's role is the development of recommendations and reports for consideration by the Pacific Council and its SSC at the Pacific Council's November 2026 meeting in Garden Grove, California.
Although non-emergency issues not contained in the meeting agendas may be discussed, those issues may not be the subject of formal action during these meetings. Action will be restricted to those issues specifically listed in this document and any issues arising after publication of this document that require emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, provided the public has been notified of the intent to take final action to address the emergency.
Special Accommodations
These meetings are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Mr. Hayden York (
hayden.york@pcouncil.org;
503-820-2424) at least 10 days prior to the meeting date.