Science Response 2014/025

Performance of a revised management procedure for Sablefish in British Columbia

Context

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the British Columbia (BC) Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) fishing industry collaborate on a management strategy evaluation (MSE) process intended to develop and implement a transparent and sustainable harvest strategy. Sustainability of harvest strategies is determined by simulation testing alternative management procedures against operating models that represent a range of hypotheses about uncertain Sablefish stock dynamics. Performance of management procedures used in these tests is measured against pre-agreed conservation and catch objectives for the stock and fishery.

An incremental revision to the current Sablefish management procedure was identified during a September 2013 review of fishery objectives, when industry stakeholders proposed a minimum catch limit. Specifically, the suggested revision imposes a total allowable catch (TAC) “floor” on the harvest control rule component of the current management procedure. This proposed revision requires simulation testing to quantify the expected change in conservation and catch performance of the overall fishery harvest strategy. Fisheries Management Branch subsequently requested that Science Branch provide information and advice for January 2014 on these effects. Existing fishery objectives are used to determine whether performance changes are acceptable.

The objectives of this Science Response are to:

1. Revise the harvest control rule component of the existing Sablefish management procedure to include a minimum TAC floor set at the 2013/14 TAC of 1,992 metric tonnes;
2. Complete simulations that apply the revised management procedure to the same observed and simulated data documented by Cox et al. (2011) and compare with their results; and
3. Apply the revised management procedure to commercial landings and survey data updated to 2013 to produce a catch recommendation for the 2014/15 fishery.

This Science Response Report results from the January 2014 Science Response Process for the Performance of a revised management procedure for the British Columbia Sablefish fishery.

Complete document (PDF, 260  KB)

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