Science Response 2018/027

Harvest Advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia Waters for 2017

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 resides 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 BC waters) and formal fishery closures in 2015 and 2016.

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 when it 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 age-1+ biomass estimate used in the harvest control rule is based on stock assessment efforts conducted by the United States (US) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). An updated US stock assessment of the northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine was conducted and reviewed in February 2017 and adopted for US management in April 2017 (Hill et al. 2017, STAR 2017).

DFO Fisheries Management requested that DFO Science Branch incorporate the updated 2017 US stock assessment results into the 2013 BC fishery harvest control rule and provide harvest advice for Pacific Sardine for the 2017 season. Specifically, this Science Response (SR) 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 2017 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, if the biomass estimate exceeds the cutoff (escapement buffer) of 150,000 t.
2. Identify uncertainties associated with harvest advice.

A formal Canadian stock assessment will not be undertaken in 2017 and the following advice is based on a multi-year method approved in 2013.  As such, for a full understanding of Science recommendations, uncertainties, and future considerations, readers are referred to the 2013 Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) Science Advice Report (DFO 2013).

Complete document (PDF, 159 KB)

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