September 5, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Peer reviewers are evaluating 14 Northeast groundfish stock assessments September 9-13. The review meeting is at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Clark Conference Room, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
How Much Review?
To keep fisheries and fishery management successful in the Northeast, scientists provide information on about 60 fishery stocks in the form of stock assessments. Of these,14 groundfish stocks are under review this year.
There are two tracks for peer review – one for management and one for research. This ensures that the information needed for fishery management in a given year is available and that there is sufficient time to improve assessment science.
Management Assessments
The management assessment schedule is designed to provide set cycles for each stock. Some are assessed every year, some every two years, and so on. In a given year, the selected stocks are reviewed in the early summer or in the early fall. The timing aligns with the fishery management timelines for the various stocks.
This way, all stocks are assessed often enough to provide managers with what they need to develop good management measures and appropriate catch limits.
All of the assessments under review this week are management assessments. These are designed to be simple, quick, and more efficient than research assessments.
Using the new assessment process, an oversight panel met in June. They determined how much detail to include in each groundfish assessment and how much time to devote to review. Assessments for 10 of the 14 stocks will be further examined by the peer reviewers. Assessments for four will be reported directly to the New England Fishery Management Council.