Science Response 2018/041

Harvest Advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia Waters for 2018

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 Sardine 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, 2016 and 2017.

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 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 update to a 2017 stock assessment model of the northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine was conducted by the US NMFS of NOAA in March 2018. Results from the 2018 update include information on stock status and forecasts of age1+ sardine biomass informed by data sets representing fishery landings, biological sample data and fishery independent surveys updated until December 2017 (described in Hill et al. 2018). 

DFO Fisheries Management requested that DFO Science Branch incorporate the updated 2018 US stock assessment results into the 2013 BC fishery harvest control rule and provide harvest advice for Pacific Sardine for the 2018 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 2018 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 expected stock biomass is above the escapement buffer of 150,000 tonnes.
2. Identify uncertainties associated with harvest advice.

A formal Canadian stock assessment will not be undertaken in 2018 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 the 2013 Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) Science Advice Report (DFO 2013).

This Science Response Report results from the Science Response Process of May 2018 on Harvest Advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia Waters for 2018.

Complete document (PDF, 150 KB)

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