Science Response 2016/041

Harvest Advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia Waters for 2016

Context

The northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in the eastern Pacific Ocean (California Current Ecosystem) has a distribution that can range between Baja California to southeast Alaska. In winter and spring months, most of this stock has the tendency to occur in waters off the California coast in association with spawning. Prior to, and during summer months, large aggregations of Pacific Sardine migrate from spawning habitat to more northern waters mainly to forage. Migratory patterns can be affected by age structure, population size and oceanographic conditions. Typically, most Pacific Sardines that migrate into British Columbia (BC) waters are the larger and older fish in the population.  Pacific Sardine has not been fished in BC waters since 2012 due to reduced migration (a general absence of Pacific Sardine in BCwaters) and a formal fishery closure in 2015.

To calculate potential harvest options for the BC sardine fishery, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) adopted a harvest control rule in 2013 that applies a harvest rate to an estimate of age-1 year and older (age-1+) biomass that exceeds 150,000 t (DFO 2013). As described in the 2013 Science Advisory Report, a range in harvest rates from 3-5% was selected to calculate potential harvest options. The April 2015 US stock assessment forecasted age 1+ sardine biomass to be below the 150, 000t cutoff (Hill et al. 2015), resulting in a recommendation of zero harvest in BC waters for 2015.  An updated USstock assessment of the northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine was conducted and reviewed in March 2016. Results from that assessment include information on stock status and forecasts of age-1+ biomass informed by data sets representing fishery landings, biological sample data and fishery independent surveys for the period of January 1993 to December 2015 (Hill et al 2016).

DFO Fisheries Management requested that Science Branch incorporate the updated March 2016 BC fishery harvest control rule and provide harvest advice for Pacific Sardine for the 2016 season. Specifically, this Science Response provides information on the northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine (associated with the California Current Ecosystem) to report on its biomass status, exploitation rates, commercial landings, and harvest options for the 2016 BC Pacific Sardine fishing season. Objectives of this report are to:

1. Report the results of applying the harvest control rule for a range of harvest rates from 0.03 to 0.05 in increments of 0.01.
2. Identify uncertainties associated with harvest advice.

A formal Canadian stock assessment will not be undertaken in 2016 and the following advice is based on multi-year method approved in 2013.  As such, for a full understanding of Science recommendations, uncertainties, and future considerations, readers are referred the 2013 Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) Science Advice Report (DFO 2013).

This Science Response Report results from the Science Response process of April 2016 on Harvest Advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia Waters for 2016.

Complete document (PDF, 95 KB)

Accessibility Notice

This document is available in PDF format. If the document is not accessible to you, please contact the Secretariat to obtain another appropriate format, such as regular print, large print, Braille or audio version.