Page 12. MAINE COASTAL NEWS July 2012


Stock Assessment 101 Series: Part 1— Data Required for Assessing U.S. Fish Stocks


What is a fish stock?


A biological fish stock is a group of fish of the same species that live in the same geographic area and mix enough to breed with each other when mature. A management stock may refer to a biological stock, or a multispecies complex that is managed as a single unit.


Stock Assessments—Designed to Answer Difficult Questions: What is the current status of a fish stock relative to established targets? (e.g. Is a stock experiencing overfishing? Is the stock overfished?)


How much can fishermen catch while maintaining a healthy and sustainable fish stock? If a stock is depleted, what steps must be taken to rebuild it to healthy abundance levels?


Answers to these important questions help managers make the best decisions to ensure a healthy balance between sustainable fish stocks, ecosystem health, and productive coastal communities. Scientists use fish ear bones (otoliths) to determine fish age, similar to how tree rings tell us about tree age.


Why Do We Conduct Fish Stock Assessments?


NOAA Fisheries’ scientific stock assessments are key to fisheries management. They examine the effects of fishing and other factors to describe the past and current status of a fish stock, answer questions about the size of a fish stock, and make predictions about how a fish stock will respond to current and future management measures (Marine Fisheries Stock Assessment Improvement Plan). Fish stock assessments support sustainable fisheries by providing fisheries managers with the information necessary to make sound decisions.


Why Are Fish Stock Assessments Important?


Fisheries in the United States contribute significantly to the American economy and generate over 1.5 million jobs economy-wide. Healthy fisheries also provide recreational fishing opportunities to millions of Americans. To continue enjoying these benefits, we must carefully manage fish stocks to ensure sustainable use for current and future generations.


Stock assessments provide important science information necessary for the conservation and management of fish stocks. The Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act calls for the best scientific information available to manage U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries. More than 500 fish stocks in the United


Commercial Fishing News MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS


States are managed under fishery management plans produced by eight regional fishery management councils. Additionally, coastal states and international organizations rely on NOAA Fisheries’ stock assessments for the management of non-federal and joint jurisdiction fish stocks.


Data for Complete Stock Assessments — Catch, Abundance, and Biology Stock assessments are based on models of fish populations that require three primary categories of information: catch, abundance, and biology. To ensure the highest quality stock assessments, the data used must be accurate and timely. Catch Data — The amount of fish removed from a stock by fishing


A national network of fishery monitoring programs continuously collects catch data and makes this information available to stock assessment scientists and managers. Sources of catch data include: Dockside monitoring: Often conducted in partnership with state agencies and Fishery Commissions, dockside monitoring records commercial catch receipts to give an accurate measure of commercial landings and provides biological samples of the length, sex, and age of fish.


Logbooks: Records from commercial fishermen of their location, gear, and catch. Observers: Biologists observe fishing operations on a certain proportion of fishing vessels and collect data on the amount of catch and discards.


Recreational sampling: Telephone interview surveys and dockside sampling estimate the level of catch by the recreational fishery (Read more about the Marine Recreational Information Program). Abundance Data—A measure, or relative index, of the number or weight of fish in the stock.


Data ideally come from a statistically- designed, fishery-independent survey (systematic sampling carried out by research or contracted commercial fishing vessels separately from commercial fishing operations) that samples fish at hundreds of locations throughout the stock’s range. Most surveys are conducted annually and collect data on all ecosystem components. NOAA Fishery Survey Vessels and chartered fishing vessels use standardized sampling methods to collect data the same way each year, providing a relative index of abundance over time. In some situations, catch rates by fishermen can be calibrated to provide additional abundance measures as well.


Biology Data—Provides information on fish growth rates and natural mortality. Biological data includes information on fish size, age, reproductive rates, and


movement. Annual growth rings in fish ear bones (otoliths) are read by biologists in our laboratories. The samples may be collected during fishery-independent surveys or be obtained from observers and other fishery sampling programs. Academic programs and cooperative research with the fishing industry are other important sources of biological data.


New Analysis Shows Eight Percent of U.S. Marine Waters Protected New analysis of updated data has shown that eight percent of U.S. waters are currently designated as marine protected areas (MPAs), with the vast majority of these areas open to fishing and other activities, according to NOAA. The analysis also showed that more than two-thirds of all U.S. MPAs were created, at least in part, to conserve natural heritage values, such as biodiversity, ecosystems, or protected species. About a quarter of sites focus on sustainable production, such as those established to recover overfished stocks, protect species readily taken as bycatch, or preserve essential fish habitats, while the remaining approximately ten percent were established to conserve our nation’s cultural heritage.


U.S. sites are cataloged in the recently


updated MPA Inventory, available online. Data in the updated MPA Inventory are available in tabular and spatial form, and can be viewed through the MPA Center’s interactive MPA mapping tool.


2012 Harbor Seal Survey Underway off New England Coast


Live-Capture Tagging, Aerial Surveys Focus on Cape Cod, Mid-Coast Maine Populations


Researchers have completed the first phase of a comprehensive study to determine the distribution and abundance of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) off the coast of Cape Cod and mid-coast Maine. The study continues in late May with aerial abundance survey flights along the Maine coast. The 2012 study along the New England coast, part of the ongoing seal research program at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), is also a component of a much larger, multi-year survey of marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds along the entire U.S. East Coast which the NEFSC is leading on behalf of four federal agencies. The 2012 field work is just getting underway for that project, the Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS).


In the first phase of the seal study, researchers used three boats - two boats from the NEFSC’s Woods Hole Laboratory and one boat from the University of Maine - to conduct live capture of harbor seals. Each


captured animal was weighed, biological samples ( i.e. blood,. skin and hair) obtained for health assessment and genetic studies, and radio and flipper tags affixed, before the seal was released.


Gordon Waring, who heads the seal research program at the Woods Hole Laboratory, says the harbor seal survey is different from the Center’s annual aerial photographic surveys since it will be conducted during the harbor seal’s peak pupping period, which occurs from late May to early June.


“This distribution and abundance survey is more intense, in terms of the number and types of aerial surveys, the live- capture of harbor seals, the increased biological sampling efforts, and because we can tag up to 35 animals, which is the total number of radio tags we have available,” said Waring. “Harbor seals are small and fairly easy to handle during live-capture efforts, are generally not aggressive, and they will shed the small radio tags when they molt in a few months.”


Information from the radio-tagged seals will be used to adjust photographic aerial counts to account for the fraction of animals not hauled-out on the ledges – and hence not available to be counted - during the aerial flights. While harbor seals are the focus of this aerial work, researchers will also count any gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) that are observed. The two species are the most common seals in New England. Gray seals are much larger and often more aggressive than harbor seals.


The live capture work was conducted March 24-31 off Chatham Harbor, Mass. and continued April 12-17 off the coast of Rockland, Maine in western Penobscot Bay. Both areas are traditional haul-out sites for harbor seals. A total of 29 harbor seals were tagged: 17 seals at Chatham, 12 off Rockland. The scientific team is working under a research permit issued by NOAA to study these protected marine mammals. A special research use permit was obtained from the National Park Service for the Chatham tagging work.


Waring led the team of a dozen experienced marine mammal researchers from NEFSC’s Protected Species Branch and Fisheries Sampling Branch at the Woods Hole Laboratory and colleagues from NOAA’s Northeast Regional Office in Gloucester, Mass.; the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation on Long Island, N.Y.; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the Chatham work.


Colleagues from


NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, Wash.; the University of Maine, Orono; Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans; the University of New England’s Marine Animal Rehabilitation


MICHAEL X. SAVASUK, ESQ. 120


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