Research Document - 1999/091

The Labrador Component of Prefishery Abundance of North America Atlantic Salmon (Salmon salar L.) in 1998

By D.G. Reddin

Abstract

For the years 1969-97, the Labrador component of North American prefishery abundance (PFA) including estimates of returns to rivers and spawning escapement was based on the commercial fishery catch data. Since the commercial fishery in Labrador was not open in 1998, and because the PFA is used to provide catch advice to NASCO on North American salmon stocks, an alternate method was required. An alternate use of the abundance estimates was to provide stock status information for Labrador. In total, five options were examined including not providing an estimate for Labrador, removing Labrador from the time series of PFA estimates, providing new estimates based on exploitation rate/habitat model using angling catch data and estimating PFA based either on proportions or regression estimates from the previous time series. After examination of various techniques and their attributes, the proportional method was selected. Raising factors to include estimates of Labrador salmon in the North American PFA were 1.04 to 1.59 for maturing 1SW salmon (potential grilse) and 1.05 to 1.27 for 1SW non-maturing salmon (potential 2SW salmon). There were no counting facilities in Labrador in 1998 and without corroborative evidence it is not recommended that these methods be used to provide stock status information for Labrador salmon

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