Research Document 2021/067
Results of a questionnaire to commercial harvesters on historical and current unaccounted catches of Atlantic cod in NAFO areas 3Pn4RS
By Benoît, H.P., Brassard, C., Carruthers, E., and Nadeau, P.
Abstract
Accurate accounting of fishery removals is a cornerstone of reliable stock assessment. When the magnitude of unaccounted catches varies over time, important assessment parameters can become more inaccurate and the relative roles of fishing and time-varying natural mortality can be harder to disentangle, resulting in poorer science advice in support of sustainable fishery management. Questionnaire–based surveys of fishery resource users are increasingly being used to estimate plausible magnitudes of past and present unaccounted catches. A survey of current and former commercial Atlantic cod harvesters in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (NAFO 3Pn,4RS) was undertaken in early 2021 to gather information on four specific categories of unaccounted catch of cod: discards in the directed fishery, unreported catch (including discards) of cod in fisheries directed at other species, unreported personal use of fish by harvesters, and catches in the recreational fishery. Furthermore, the questionnaire was structured according to epochs over the period from the mid-1950s to present that characterized the fishery, such as to place temporal guideposts to aid in recall by questionnaire respondents, and to provide for temporal variation in elicited catch amounts according to key periods in the fishery that were likely to influence those amounts. This document presents the results of the harvester survey which will support the elicitation of catch bounds to be used as part of a revised assessment framework for NAFO 3Pn4RS cod currently being developed.
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