August 20, 2026 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s stock assessment staff, working in conjunction with state and federal stock assessment scientists, continue to make progress on a number benchmark stock assessments. Additionally, in the coming month, the Commission will post a species-specific Benchmark Stock Assessment Tracker webpage, much like our Action Trackers, to increase transparency in our stock assessment process by enabling stakeholders to track benchmark assessment development and where we are in the assessment process. A press release will announce their availability. In the interim, here’s a snapshot of recent and upcoming assessment activities.
Atlantic Croaker
The Atlantic Croaker Benchmark Stock Assessment Peer Review was conducted July 27-30, 2026, in Arlington, VA. The results of both the benchmark stock assessment and peer review will be presented to the Sciaenids Management Board for consideration in November 2026 at the Commission’s Annual Meeting in Newport, Rhode Island.
Atlantic Migratory Group Cobia
In March and April of this year, the Commission conducted a series of Data Workshops for the upcoming Cobia Benchmark Stock Assessment. At the first three workshops, the Technical Committee, Stock Assessment Subcommittee, and federal data partners focused on data sources for commercial and recreational fishery removals, biosampling, and life history; and available fishery-independent survey data and initial literature review findings. The final workshop included a discussion about indices of abundance, tagging data, preparation for the next workshop on assessment methods, and other items as needed from the previous workshops.
A Methods Workshop, to be held September 22-25, 2026, in Raleigh, NC, will include an evaluation of models and analyses developed to estimate stock status, with the Stock Assessment Subcommittee making final selections regarding data and model structure. The Assessment Workshop is scheduled for December 2026, with the peer review being conducted through the SouthEast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) process in May 2027.
Atlantic Striped Bass
A Data Workshop was held in October 2025, followed by a Methods Workshop in March 2026. The
Atlantic Striped Bass Stock Assessment Workshop will be held August 24-28, 2026, at the Commission office at 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, VA. This workshop, which is accessible online and in-person, will focus on evaluation of models and analyses developed to determine stock status. The Commission’s stock assessment meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room. Public comment will be allowed if time permits at the discretion of the Stock Assessment Subcommittee Chair. More information on the Workshop can be found here.
The peer review will be conducted through Northeast Regional Stock Assessment process in May or June 2027, with the Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board scheduled to consider the benchmark assessment and peer review in August 2027 at the Commission’s Summer Meeting.
Atlantic Sturgeon
In July and August of this year, the Commission conducted a series of Data Workshops for the upcoming Atlantic Sturgeon Benchmark Stock Assessment. At these workshops, the Technical Committee and the Stock Assessment Subcommittee reviewed and evaluated available data sources for the assessment, including indices of abundance, life history information, bycatch estimation, and tagging data.
The Methods Workshop will be conducted in early 2027, and the Assessment Workshop will be held in early fall 2027. The assessment will be peer-reviewed through the Commission’s external peer review process in 2028.
Spot
The Commission first initiated a benchmark stock assessment for spot back in 2023. An initial Data Workshop was held in 2023, but the assessment process was put on hold so that the Atlantic Croaker Technical Committee and Stock Assessment Subcommittee, which consists of many of the same members as the Spot Committees, could focus on the Atlantic croaker benchmark assessment and peer review. With the completion of the Atlantic croaker peer review in July, the Spot Stock Assessment Committee has reinitiated the spot assessment and will conduct its first two meetings on August 31 and September 3. The focus of these meetings will be to review available data sources, as well as discuss potential models for development. Next steps, including additional workshops, will be scheduled following these two meetings; information on future meetings will be posted to the Meetings page of the Commission’s website.