Status of Stocks and Multispecies Assessment Program

Groundfish Stock Assessments for 2010: Fishery Quota Recommendations

The 2009 cycle of stock assessment reporting concluded in early December, and recommendations were put forward for Alaska groundfish catch levels for 2010. The information provided by the AFSC fisheries surveys, observer data, and analysis again assisted the NPFMC in their annual decision-making process. The preparation of the stock assessment and fishery evaluation (SAFE) reports this year covered more than 54 sections and totaled more than 3,000 thousand pages.

These reports contain analyses summarizing the information about the individual stocks and species groups, and include ABC and overfishing level (OFL) recommendations for future years. The authors of these reports (mostly NMFS scientists) presented their findings to the NPFMC’s Groundfish Plan Teams in September and November.

At these meetings, the reports are reviewed and recommendations for ABC levels are compiled into two SAFE report volumes (one each for the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA) regions), along with Plan Team recommendations for ABC, which may differ from author recommendations. The compiled reports are then submitted to the NPFMC Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) for further review. The SSC makes the final ABC recommendation to the Council and the Council’s Advisory Panel of industry representatives makes TAC recommendations. Finally, the recommended TAC levels are adjusted (for some species) by the Council to ensure that other constraints (e.g., limiting the sum of all TACs in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands to be less than 2.0 million t) are met.

Read the summary stock assessments and fishery quota recommendations for 2010 for the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska groundfish resources. pdf; 7.03MB>