Mr. Chair, as far as other factors beyond groundfish fisheries and bycatch in groundfish fisheries are concerned, as I mentioned previously, there are no directed fisheries for Pacific salmon in the Bering Sea beyond nearshore fisheries that occur, in the case of the Yukon River salmon stocks, at the mouth of the Yukon River; and they are documented and enumerated as part of what we'll call broader U.S. or Alaskan catch.
From our best available information currently, the largest and most prominent influencing factor on the survival and abundance of Canadian-origin Yukon River chinook salmon stocks has been changing marine conditions. Specifically, the conditions are earlier and later ice breakup on the Bering Sea and a reduced period of ice cover that affects water temperature as well as salinity.
Effectively, these changing conditions are creating an environment that is more conducive to supporting different types of species that serve as food for fish, in particular, salmon, but then also attract different species of predators.
To the best of our understanding, these primary shifts as far as chinook salmon survival and production go are related to food availability—so different types and frankly different qualities of food that are available for chinook salmon that are in the marine environment in the Bering Sea—and then also an indication of increased predation rates.