Terms of Reference

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

Regional Science Response Process – Pacific Region

May 2018
Nanaimo, British Columbia

Chairperson: Linnea Flostrand

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 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 a fishery closure 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 (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 update to a 2017 stock assessment model of the northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine was conducted by the United States (US) National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (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 (based on Hill et al. 2018).

DFO Fisheries Management Branch is requesting that Science Branch incorporate the updated March 2018 U.S. stock assessment results into the 2013 BC fishery harvest control rule and provide harvest advice for Pacific Sardine for the 2018 season. The advice arising from this Canadian Science Advice Secretariat (CSAS) Science Response (SR) will be used to inform management decisions on the 2018 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the Canadian Pacific Sardine Fishery.

Objective

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. 2018. Harvest advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia waters for the 2018 season. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Resp. 2018/041.

The objectives of this SR process 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; and
2. Identify uncertainties associated with the 2018 harvest advice.

Expected Publications

• Science Response

Expected Participation

• DFO (Science, Fisheries Management)
• Province of British Columbia
• Commercial fishing industry
• NOAA

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., P.R. Crone, J.P. Zwolinski. 2018. Assessment of the Pacific sardine resource in 2018 for U.S. management in 2018-19. Pacific Fishery Management Council, April 2018 Briefing Book, Agenda Item C.5, Attachment 1. Portland, Oregon.