The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
September 25, 2013 — This winter, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will continue work on the 2014 benchmark stock assessment for Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus). The assessment will be used to evaluate the health of the Atlantic menhaden 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 or age 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 December 1, 2013. For more information on submitting data, including the appropriate format, and/or attending the Atlantic menhaden data workshop (space is limited), please contact Dr. Genny Nesslage, ASMFC Stock Assessment Scientist, at gnesslage@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740. The deadline for data submission is December 1, 2013.
The Data Workshop will be conducted on January 13-16, 2014 (location to be determined). This workshop will review all available data sources for Atlantic menhaden and identify data sets that will be incorporated in the stock assessment. A subsequent press release will announce the location of the Data Workshop.
For more information on the stock assessment process, please contact Michael Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mwaine@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.