Research Document - 2001/072
Stock Structure, Movements, and Exploitation of Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua) in NAFO Divs. 2J+3KL based on Tagging Experiments conducted during 1999-2000)
By Brattey, J., Porter, D., Goerge, C.
Abstract
A tagging study of adult (>45 cm) Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in 2J+3KL, initiated in spring 1999, was continued. During 2000 a total 3,417 cod were tagged with single, double, or high-reward t-bar anchor tags and released at various inshore locations off the east and northeast coasts of insular Newfoundland and southern Labrador. A total of 205 cod (5.9%) tagged in 2000 and 344 tagged in 1999 were reported as recaptured during 2000 from recreational, sentinel, directed commercial and by-catch fisheries. Tag returns were adjusted to account for reporting rate and the number of tagged cod released was adjusted to account for tagging mortality, tag loss and assumed natural mortality; these data were used to estimate exploitation rates. These analyses gave exploitation rates in 2000 of 0.10 for fish tagged in 3K, 0.11 for fish tagged in northern 3L, and 0.22 for those tagged in southern 3L. The spatial distribution of recaptures from 2000 was consistent with other post-moratorium northern cod tagging studies and indicates that the inshore of 3KL is inhabited by (1) a northern resident coastal group of cod that occupies an area from western Trinity Bay northward through Bonavista Bay, the Fogo-Twillingate area, to western Notre Dame Bay, and (2) a migrant group from inshore and offshore areas of 3Ps that moves into southern 3L and more rarely northern 3L and 3K during late spring and summer and returns to 3Ps during fall. The contribution of offshore northern cod to the inshore fishery in 3KL during 2000 remains unknown.
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