This quarter, scientists from ABL's MESA Program completed four full stock assessments and five updated assessments for nine species/species groups of Alaska groundfish.
Full assessments included Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands sharks, Gulf of Alaska sharks, Alaska grenadiers, and Alaska sablefish.
Stock assessment updates included Gulf of Alaska Pacific ocean perch, northern rockfish, rougheye rockfish, pelagic shelf rockfish, and shortraker rockfish and other slope rockfish.
Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports or executive summaries were prepared for each assessment, and results were presented to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's Groundfish Plan Teams in November and also reviewed by the Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee in December.
The Council used these assessments as the primary source for determining catch quotas (levels of total allowable catch) for these species in 2009.
For detailed information about these assessments, see the Resource Ecology and Fisheries Management (REFM) Division section of this issue.
