Proceedings 2020/010

Proceedings of the Regional Peer Review of the Stock Assessment of NAFO Divisions 4VWX Herring; April 11–12, 2018

Chairperson: Jennifer Ford

Editor: Lottie Bennett

Summary

A regional peer review meeting was held on April 11–12, 2018, at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to assess the stock status of Herring in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Divisions 4VWX. As set out in the Terms of Reference, the focus of the meeting was to evaluate stock status of the southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy (SWNS/BoF) spawning component, review information regarding the offshore Scotian Shelf and coastal Nova Scotia spawning components and the southwest New Brunswick migrant juvenile fishery component, evaluate the use of the turnover acoustic survey biomass estimate, and to propose an Upper Stock Reference (USR). Participation in this meeting included DFO Science and Resource Management, provincial government, Aboriginal organizations, the fishing industry, environmental non-government organizations, and academic researchers.

In 2012, a conservation Limit Reference Point (LRP) for the SWNS/BoF Herring spawning component (German Bank and Scots Bay) was identified as the 2005–2010 average acoustic survey biomass (371,067 t). A 3-year running average of the combined acoustic estimates on German Bank and Scots Bay is used to determine the state of the stock in relation to the LRP. In 2017, this average decreased to the LRP for the first time since 2011. During the 2014 assessment, it was noted that fish abundance could be over or under-estimated using the acoustic survey approach. The methodology to account for double-counting was reviewed and accepted. These results were used to revise the acoustic spawning stock biomass estimates for the entire time series, including the LRP.

Two USR proposals were discussed at the meeting. As no consensus was reached on either proposal, no USR recommendation was put forward from this meeting.

This proceedings document includes a summary of the presentations and is a record of the meeting discussions and conclusions. A Science Advisory Report and Research Documents resulting from this meeting will be published on the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat's (CSAS) Website as they become available.

Proceedings 2020/010 (PDF, 640 KB)

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