September 25, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will convene a Data Workshop to evaluate data for future stock assessments. Currently, there is no stock-wide assessment for Jonah crab. The purpose of the workshop is to evaluate all available data sources to determine whether enough data of sufficient quality are available to conduct a stock assessment. The Workshop will be conducted virtually by webinar November 16-18, 2020, and is open to the public. The workshop agenda will be available on the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/
In preparation for the workshop, the Commission is requesting data from academia, member states, federal partners, non-governmental organizations, participating jurisdictions and stakeholders. The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will aid in conducting a stock-wide benchmark stock assessment and allow for a determination of stock status. This includes, but is not limited to, data on catch per unit effort, tag-recapture data, biological samples (individual length and weight), and life history information (growth, maturity, natural mortality). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format with accompanying description of methods to Jeff Kipp, Senior Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org by November 2, 2020.
For more information about the workshop including presentation of materials, please contact Caitlin Starks, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at cstarks@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.