Terms of Reference

Evaluation of Management Procedures for Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in the Strait of Georgia and the West Coast of Vancouver Island Management Areas of British Columbia

Regional Peer Review Process – Pacific Region

July 25-26, 2018
Nanaimo, BC

Chairperson: Bruce Patten

Context

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has committed to renewing the current management framework to address a range of challenges facing Pacific Herring stocks and fisheries in British Columbia. Renewal of the management framework includes conducting a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) process to evaluate the performance of candidate management procedures against a range of hypotheses about uncertain stock and fishery dynamics. The purpose of the evaluation is to identify management procedures (combination of data, assessment method and harvest control rule) that provide acceptable outcomes related to conservation and fishery management objectives. Selection of a preferred management procedure for a DFO fisheries management area is an iterative process conducted with the participation of First Nations, the fishing industry, government and non-government organizations.

The DFO Sustainable Fisheries Framework and Precautionary Approach (PA Framework; DFO 2009) calls for the identification of limit reference points (LRPs) to serve as thresholds to undesirable stock states. Limit reference points were presented and approved for the five major Pacific Herring stocks in February 2017 (DFO 2017, Kronlund et al. 2018). Closed-loop feedback simulation testing of candidate management procedures to evaluate the consequences of LRP choice for each stock was recommended as the next step. However, the identification of a preferred management procedure requires a fully specified set of objectives that includes LRPs, upper stock reference (USRs; candidate USRs included in DFO 2018) and target reference points (TRPs). In addition, a number of core fisheries management objectives, proposed by DFO to the Integrated Herring Harvesters Planning Committee in May 2017, as well as stock-specific objectives, proposed by herring users (First Nations and fishing industry) will be included in this first cycle of the MSE process.

Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in British Columbia are managed based on five major stock management areas: Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert District, Central Coast, Strait of Georgia, and West Coast of Vancouver Island, and two minor stock management areas. A full CSAS review of the stock assessment model occurred in October 2017 (Cleary et al. 2018, DFO 2018). This peer review will focus on simulation testing of management procedures for West Coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI) and Strait of Georgia (SoG). These two management areas were chosen for evaluation because they exhibit contrasting stock and fishery states, and a set of conservation and fishery objectives have been identified through workshops with WCVI First Nations and industry participants. Experience with this MSE process will be applied to simulation testing of management procedures for the remaining Pacific Herring stocks following the first MSE cycle.

DFO Fisheries Management has requested that DFO Science evaluate the performance of candidate management procedures for Pacific Herring. The evaluation and advice arising from this Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) Regional Peer Review (RPR) will support the renewal of Pacific Herring management framework and will be used to support the development of the 2018/19 Pacific Herring Integrated Fisheries Management Plan (IFMP).

Objective

The following working paper will be reviewed and will provide the basis for discussion and advice on the specific objectives outlined below:

Cleary, J.S., Benson, A.J., Cox, S.P., Grinnell, M. Evaluation of Management Procedures for Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in the Strait of Georgia and West Coast Vancouver Island Management Areas of British Columbia. CSAP Working Paper 2015PEL02.

Guided by the DFO Sustainable Fisheries Framework, the following objectives for this advisory process have been established:

1. Evaluate the suitability of the Pacific Herring operating model (modified from Cox et al. unpublished document^{Footnote 1}; DFO 2015) for simulating realistic data derived from alternative hypotheses about stock and fishery dynamics for WCVI and SoG Pacific Herring.
2. Characterize stock status relative to reference points for all operating model configurations.
3. Review the results of applying a hierarchy of stock and fishery objectives in terms of a relative ranking of candidate management procedures by simulated outcomes. Candidate management procedures may include:
4. an approximation of the status quo harvest control rule implemented in 1986
5. alternative procedures that vary the choice of status and fishing rate operational control points specified in a harvest control rule
6. Evaluate a proxy to address spatially explicit objectives that utilizes records of Pacific Herring spawn (fine scale spatial dynamics are not modelled in the current operating model).
7. Recommend acceptable management procedures and evaluate the possibility of applying results from the WCVI and SoG analyses to the Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert District, and Central Coast stocks.

Expected Publications

• Science Advisory Report
• Research Document
• Proceedings

Expected Participation

• DFO Science and Fisheries Management
• First Nations
• Fishing Industry
• Government Agencies (Province of BC, NOAA)
• Non-government Organizations

References

Cleary, J.S., Hawkshaw, S., Grinnell, M.H., and Grandin, C. 2018. Stock Assessment for Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in British Columbia in 2017 and forecast for 2018. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc 2018/028. In press.

DFO  2009. A fishery decision-making framework incorporating the Precautionary Approach.

DFO. 2015. Candidate Limit Reference Points as a basis for choosing among alternative Harvest Control Rules for Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in British Columbia. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2015/062.

DFO. 2017. The Selection and Role of Limit Reference Points for Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in British Columbia. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2017/052.

DFO. 2018. Stock assessment for Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in British Columbia in 2017 and forecast for 2018.  DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2018/002.

Kronlund, A.R., Forrest, R.E., Cleary, J.S., and Grinnell, M.H. 2018.  The Selection and Role of Limit Reference Points for Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in British Columbia, Canada.  DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2018/009. ix +125 p.