Research Document - 2012/018

Reference Points for Scallop Fisheries in the Maritimes Region

By S.J. Smith and P.B. Hubley

Abstract

The fisheries for sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus) in the Maritimes Region are managed geographically as offshore fisheries (Georges, Browns, German, Sable, Western and Middle Banks) and inshore fisheries (Bay of Fundy and approaches, Scallop Fishing Area (SFA) 29 West). While population models are used for determining stock status for many of the scallop areas, the lack of evidence for stock/recruitment relationships necessitates determining reference points for the precautionary approach using empirical methods Model-based estimates of population biomass and fisheries exploitation rates are used to determine biomass and removal reference points, respectively. The offshore fisheries were awarded certification by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in 2010 and have established limit reference and upper stock reference points as 30% and 80% of the mean biomass over the period 1981 to 2009. The target removal exploitation rate for Georges Bank was set at 0.25 The inshore fisheries will be reviewed by MSC in 2012 and are looking at the proposal to set the limit reference point to the lowest biomass that the stocks have recovered from The upper stock reference point will need to be set so that management has time to reduce exploitation to avoid having the biomass drop below the lower reference point Methods for defining reference points for areas where model estimates are not available were briefly discussed Recent research on spatial considerations for reference points was introduced.

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