May 5, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
During its April 14-15, 2020 webinar meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council received a presentation from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center on preliminary results from the Red Hake Stock Structure Peer Review meeting. It then received a progress report on management measures that are under development to rebuild the southern stock of red hake. The Council is scheduled to take final action on this rebuilding package in June.
Currently, red hake is assessed as two distinct stocks – one northern and one southern (see map). As part of the research track assessment, a working group was established to evaluate whether it is appropriate to continuing using this two-stock assumption or whether an alternative approach would be better.
The working group was made up of scientists from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, state agencies, and academia. It met several times between November 2019 and February 2020 and examined red hake growth, maturity, spawning patterns, and other characteristics. The working group also was charged with evaluating how well the federal bottom trawl survey catches red hake and what that means for population assessments