The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the New England Fishery Management Council was asked by the Council to review the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute report titled “Economic and Scientific Conditions in the Massachusetts Multispecies Groundfishery”, dated November 5, 2010 with the following terms of reference to help inform the Council about the use of best available science with respect to the proposals outlined in the report and in the future.

The Executive Summary of the SSC's report follows:

The report of the Massachusetts Fisheries Institute states that “Scientifically valid alternative references points have been identified which can trigger increases in annual catch limits (ACLs) without sacrificing conservation” specifically, if:

•Stock specific ‘direct’ estimates of FMSY had been used instead of ‘proxy’ estimates for FMSY,

•Several stock assessments had not been adjusted for retrospective patterns

•A “buffer” of 0.75 between estimates of OFL and ABC had not been applied. It suggested that ABCs would have been higher if the buffer was calculated to correspond to an agreed probability of ABC exceeding OFL (referred to as the p* approach).

The report argues that not doing the above implies that the allowable catches of some stocks are substantially under-caught because of low allowable catches and management restrictions on other stocks that are caught in the same mixed stock fishery.

Read the full report.