March 21, 2013 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Arlington, Va. — This spring, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will begin work on the 2013 benchmark stock assessment for northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis). The assessment will be used to evaluate the health of the northern shrimp stock and inform the management of this species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room.
The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will improve the accuracy of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on commercial landings and discards, catch per unit effort, biological samples (length, stage, frequency), and life history information (growth, maturity, fecundity, spawning stock biomass weights, natural mortality). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by April 22, 2013.
The Data Workshop will be conducted on May 1-3, 2013 (location to be determined). This workshop will review all available data sources for northern shrimp and identify data sets that will be incorporated in the stock assessment. For those interested in submitting data and/or attending the northern shrimp data workshop (space is limited), please contact Dr. Katie Drew, ASMFC Stock Assessment Scientist, at kdrew@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740. The deadline for data submission is April 22, 2013.
For more information, please contact Michael Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mwaine@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.