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Update of Stock Status for Herring in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Fishing Areas 4VWX

Regional Peer Review - Maritimes Region

April 3, 2023
Virtual Meeting

Chairperson: Rabindra Singh

Context

Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus) is a pelagic species found on both sides of the North Atlantic. The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) 4VWX management unit contains a number of Herring spawning areas. For the purposes of evaluation and management, the 4VWX Herring fisheries are divided into four components:

  1. Southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy (SWNS/BoF) spawning component (also ‘4WX’ in management plan),
  2. Offshore Scotian Shelf banks spawning component,
  3. Coastal (South Shore, Eastern Shore and Cape Breton) Nova Scotia spawning component, and
  4. Southwest New Brunswick (SWNB) migrant juveniles.

The Georges Bank spawning component (5Z) is not included in this evaluation except to document Canadian fishing activity.

A framework review was conducted from 2019 to 2022 for the Southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy (SWNS/BoF) spawning component (Barrett 2022Footnote 1, Carruthers et al. 2020) followed by a stock assessment in March 2022 (DFO 2022). This science response process will use the 2022 assessment framework to determine whether exceptional circumstances have occurred. The status of the SWNS/BoF component will be compared to the limit reference point (LRP; DFO 2012). The probability of rebuilding SWNS/BoF component above the LRP will be evaluated based on the Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) modeling from the 2022 assessment framework. Stock status of the other spawning components for the 4VWX Herring stock will also be reported using indicators based on the 2018 stock assessment (DFO 2018).

Objectives

Review and update biological and fishery information on 4VWX Herring stock status to assist with quota and other management recommendations for 2023 fisheries, as required in the Integrated Fisheries Management Plan, including but not limited to:

Expected Publications

Expected Participation

References

Notice

Participation to CSAS peer review meetings is by invitation only.

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