Science Advisory Report2009/035

2009 Assessment of 4VWX Herring

Summary

SW Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy

• Landings in 2007/08 were 54,560t against a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of 55,000t for the SW Nova Scotia / Bay of Fundy component. Landings have tracked the TAC in recent years with most of the quota being taken each year since 2002.
• Overall length composition in the catch has improved. Proportion of larger (30cm+) sizes continues to increase. There has been an increase in medium sized (23-30cm) fish, but the strength of the incoming year-class is unknown.
• Acoustic biomass estimates decreased and are near the lowest in the time series for each of the major survey areas. Taking into consideration confidence intervals, overall spawning stock biomass (SSB) for the past 4 years has been steady, at a lower level than in the 1999-2004 period. SSB in 2008 is the lowest in the time series.
• Fishing mortality could not be determined. Relative exploitation rates based on acoustic surveys increased in 2008.
• This assessment indicates little improvement from the low level of the resource noted in recent assessments.
• A harvest strategy that exercises continued caution to facilitate further rebuilding is strongly recommended. Catch levels should remain near the current status quo due to uncertainties in estimating SSB, recruitment and the exploitation rate for this stock.

Offshore Scotian Shelf Banks

• Since 1996, a fishery has taken place on feeding aggregations on the offshore banks, primarily in May and June, with catches ranging from 1,000 to 20,000t. Total landings were 920t in 2008, down from 5,400t in 2007 and 9,800t in 2006.
• There is little new information to add and no reason to change the previous recommendation that the initial catch allocation should not exceed the 12,000t as described in the DFO Management Plan.
• The industry has been encouraged to explore and undertake structured surveys of the offshore area, but this has not occurred since 2001.

Coastal (South Shore Eastern Shore and Cape Breton) Nova Scotia

• In 2008 there was an increase in surveyed acoustic biomass in the Little Hope/Port Mouton area from the low of the previous year but biomass is still below average. The surveyed biomass in the Halifax/Eastern shore area saw a slight increase and is close to the long term average SSB observed for this area.
• Collaborative research with industry has improved our knowledge in three areas (Little Hope/Port Mouton, Halifax/Eastern Shore and Glace Bay), but there has been no increase in knowledge in other areas. It is again recommended that no coastal spawning areas experience a large effort increase in new areas until enough information is available to evaluate the state of that spawning group./li>
• Harvest levels from these areas use a five-year average of recent catches and/or surveyed acoustic biomass with the Calibration Integration Factor (CIF) to set annual removals. It is recommended that given the current situation of reduced or below average biomass in all areas, the “survey, assess, then fish” protocol should be applied.

SW New Brunswick Migrant Juvenile

• These fish have been considered to be a mixture of juveniles, dominated by those originating from NAFO Subarea 5 spawning components, and have therefore been excluded from the 4WX quota.
• Landings in the 2008 New Brunswick weir and shut-off fishery were 6,400t, the lowest catch since 1963 and well below the long term average. The previous year’s fishery landed 30,900t which was higher than the long term average of 24,000t.
• The success of this passive fishery is historically unpredictable, and catches are inherently susceptible to many natural variables in addition to abundance.

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