Terms of Reference
Harvest Advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia Waters for 2016
Science Response Process– Pacific Region
April 2016
Nanaimo, British Columbia
Chairperson: Tammy Norgard
Context
Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) from the northern subpopulation of the eastern Pacific Ocean (associated with the California Current Ecosystem) has a distribution that can range from 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 BC waters) and a 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 (age1+) biomass that exceeds 150,000 t (DFO 2013). As described in the 2013 Science Advisory Report, a range in harvest rates (h) from 3-5% was selected to calculate potential harvest options.
An updated U.S. stock 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 age1+ 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 U.S. stock assessment results into the 2013 BC fishery harvest control rule and provide harvest advice for Pacific Sardine for the 2016 season. The advice arising from this Canadian Science Advice Secretariat (CSAS) Science Response (SR) will be used to inform management decisions on the 2016 Total Allowable Catch (TAC).
Objectives
Science information and advice will be prepared on harvest options for Pacific Sardine in BC following a Science Response process and reported in the document:
DFO. 2016. Harvest advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia waters for the 2016 season. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Resp. 2016/nnn.
The objectives of this SR process are to:
- 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.
- Identify uncertainties associated with the 2016 harvest advice.
Expected Publication
- Science Response
Expected Participation
- DFO (Science, Fisheries Management)
- Province of British Columbia
- NOAA
- Commercial fishing industry
References
DFO. 2013. Review of harvest control rules for Pacific Sardine and seasonal biomass and migration in British Columbia for 2013. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2013/037.
Hill, K.T., Crone, P., Dorval, E. and Macewicz, B.J. 2016. Assessment of the Pacific sardine resource in 2016 for U.S.A management in 2016-17. Pacific Fishery Management Council.
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