RMPC History
Current Activities
Currently, in its regional coordination role, the RMPC:
- Provides coordination for marking programs by establishing regional agreements for fin marking and use of CWTs with the assistance of agency coordinators;
- Recommends changes for upgrading the Regional Mark Information System (RMIS database) to meet expanding or changing user requirements;
- Assists agencies to improve timeliness of reporting, with special emphasis on tag recovery data; and
- Develops recommendations for improving coordination and quality of CWT studies, with emphasis on experimental design, sampling design, estimation procedures, statistical problems, and documentation.
- Works with the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Technical Committee on Data Sharing and its Data Standards Work Group in the development of CWT data exchange formats used for data submission to RMIS by all participants.
- Provides technical support for the RCMT by annually reporting the status of CWT datasets and data center operations, and responding to requests by committee members.
As part of its data management role, the RMPC:
Manages RMIS that serves as a repository for all coded-wire tagged numbers inserted in anadromous salmonids in the greater Pacific Coast Region of North America, and data associated with the release, catch, sample, and tag recovery data from these salmonids.
Provides access to the RMIS content through two online report systems:
- RMIS Standard Report System – queries the database and produces reports of Releases, Recoveries, Catch/Sample, or Location Codes.
- RMIS Analysis Report System – queries the database and produces reports of Recovery based on Tag Code and/or Management Fishery.
Ensuring the quality of data submitted to RMIS, RMPC manages the data exchange specification and validates dataset submissions from
- 5 state agencies: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
- 3 tribal groups: Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Metlakatla Indian Community, Northwest Indian Fisheries Community
- 5 tribes: The Colville Confederated Tribes, Nez Perce Tribe, Quinault Indian Nation, Stillaguamish Tribe, and Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation
- 2 USA federal agencies: US Fish & Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service
- 1 Canadian federal agency: Fisheries & Oceans Canada
1988 RMPC is Selected by U.S. Section of PSC as the U.S. CWT Database
The Regional Mark Processing Center was selected in 1988 by the U.S. Section of the Pacific Salmon Commission to house and maintain the coded-wire tag database in the U.S. and to be the designated site for sharing data with Canada. The RMPC supports and facilitates the ongoing CWT-related needs of the PSMFC member States, the Regional Committee on Marking and Tagging members, and the PSC. Thus, the RMPC serves both a regional coordination role and a data management role.
The U.S. Regional Mark Processing Center (RMPC) enhances its role of coastwide CWT Release coordination by:
Adopting PSC Data Standard Release format for the RMPC RMIS database.
Incorporate into the RMPC Release database non-CWT Release information.
Collecting Release data from all RMPC-serviced agencies and Canada in PSC format.
Auditing and controlling data according to the PSC format, providing Release data by 9-track 1600 BPI tape, 1.2MB and 360KB PC floppy disk, and hard copy in the PSC format.
The RMPC serves as the Recovery and Catch/Sample clearinghouse by performing the following tasks:
Accept PSC agency data files on 9-track 1600 BPI tape.
Validate that submitted tapes adhere to PSC mandatory format constraints, rejecting any tapes not in 100% compliance. This would make compliance to standards the responsibility of the submitting agency.
Maintain current records of data update level by agency, year, and file type.
Duplicate master tapes and provide copies to PSC agencies as updated version of data are accepted.
This would discourage inter-agency exchange of unvalidated data.
… the U.S. Commissioners have considered the database siting issue~and have concluded that the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission's (PMFC) Mark processing Center is best suited to meet PSC information needs for CWT data.
1970’s RMPC is Transferred to PSMFC
Prior to the 1970’s, regional- pooling of mark recovery data depended largely on individual interagency exchanges. This problem was rectified in 1970 when Oregon Department, of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) established the Regional Mark Processing Center at its Clackamas lab. ODFW operated the RMPC during 1970-1976 and was instrumental in commencing the publication of regional CWT release and recovery reports.
The advent of coded wire tags in the early 1970’s and subsequent dramatic upsurge in tagging eventually led to an intolerable burden on the data processing capabilities of the RMPC at Clackamas. Therefore, in June. 1976, PSMFC’s regional Salmon and Steelhead Committee recommended that the RMPC operations be upgraded by establishing a Regional Mark Coordinator position and a Computer Assistant position. In addition, it was recommended that the RMPC be transferred to PSMFC because of its non-political status.
These recommendations were carried out in July. 1977 following unanimous approval of PSMFC’s Executive Committee.
The RMPC’s operations are overseen by the 16 member Committee on Anadromous Fin Marking and Tagging (now RCMT). Committee members represent not only PSMFC’s five member states (Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California) but all other federal (USFWS, NMFS). Indian (NWIFC, CRITFC, Metlakatla) and private fisheries agencies on the West Coast. including those in British Columbia. All have an equal voice when decisions are required.
RMPC Staff
Program Manager
1977 – 1979, Grahame King
1979 – 2006, Ken Johnson
2006 – 2021, George Nandor
2022 – present, Nancy Leonard
Database Administrators and Programmers
1988 – present, Jim Longwill
2000 – present, Dan Webb
