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A Review of International Best Practices to Assigning Groundfish Species to Tiers for the Purposes of Stock Assessment Based on Data Availability and Richness

Regional Peer Review - Pacific Region

May 30-31, 2016
Nanaimo, British Columbia

Co-chairs: Lesley MacDougall and Rowan Haigh

Context

An understanding of the status of species affected by a given fishery is required to support the implementation of the Sustainable Fisheries Framework and to sustainably manage the aboriginal, commercial, and recreational multi-species groundfish fisheries.  Many of the species for which stock assessments are planned will be assessed for the first time, with little data available to support traditional assessment methods.  Stock status advice is also required to demonstrate stewardship and meet eco-certification requirements.

In order to meet the high demand for species assessments within timeframes acceptable to managers and stakeholders, a framework for determining the assessment methodology to be applied for each species would streamline the assessment process and more efficiently use science resources.  There is also a desire to achieve a degree of standardization in approaches to developing and communicating advice to stakeholders and, where possible, align stock assessments with best practices in other jurisdictions.

In other global jurisdictions, a “Tiered Approach” framework for determining the type of assessment method used for a given species or stock and science advice to be expected has been developed and utilized. These approaches classify species into tiers based on data availability, quality and richness.  Membership in a tier determines the most appropriate type of assessment and management advice for the species.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Groundfish Science is developing a tiered approach to assign assessment types for species to tiers based on data availability, quality and richness.  This tiered approach may subsequently be applied to provide advice on stock status and harvest advice for British Columbia (BC) groundfish species.  It could formalize the type of assessment to be done for individual species, which will support the provision of scientific advice to fisheries managers in the contexts of conservation (sustainable Total Allowable Catches, COSEWIC, Species at Risk Act) and eco-certification (e.g. Marine Sustainability Certification).  The development of a tiered approach for the assessment of BC groundfish will occur in three stages: (1) match data availability and quality with the appropriate types of assessment methodologies available, (2) evaluate the performance of the proposed tiered approach through simulation testing, and 3) finalize and document a tiered approach for implementation in the BC groundfish fishery.

In support of stages one and two, this Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS), Regional Peer Review will be conducted in a workshop format, where participants are asked to contribute to reviewing the “Tiered Approaches” used in other jurisdictions and developing a suite of candidate tiers for BC groundfish that will subsequently be evaluated through simulation testing (stage two).  The results of the simulation testing will be used to finalize and document the tiering criteria and methods, and to develop software tools, to be used to assign BC groundfish to assessment tiers.  A CSAS Regional Peer Review will be conducted for this final work.

Objectives

The objectives of this workshop are to:

  1. Present existing “Tiered Approaches” from select international jurisdictions, and compare the supporting data requirements, expected outputs (including advice types) and lessons learned;
  2. Examine the types of data available for BC groundfish species, with the appropriate methods to assess data quality and richness, and the appropriate methods to incorporate and communicate uncertainty;
  3. Develop a set of candidate tiers for BC groundfish species for further consideration, specifying data requirements and the assessment approach for each tier; and
  4. Recommend candidate metrics to evaluate the performance of the proposed tiered approach through simulation testing.

Expected publication

Expected Participation

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