Arlington, VA – June 11, 2012 – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will begin work on the 2014 American lobster benchmark stock assessment this fall. The assessment will be used to evaluate the health of the lobster stocks. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public (with the exception of discussions of confidential data when the public will be asked to leave the room). The Commission welcomes the submission of data sets that will improve the accuracy of the assessment. For data sets to be considered at the workshops, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying methods description, to the Commission at least one month prior to the meeting at which the data will be reviewed (see schedule of Life History and Data Workshops below). Those who are interested in submitting data should contact Genny Nesslage (gnesslage@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740) by July 6, 2012 to prepare for the August 6, 2012 Life History Workshop deadline and November 8, 2012 for the December 7, 2012 Data Workshop deadline in order to meet the submission requirements.
A list of the stock assessment meeting dates, topics, and submission deadlines is provided below.
September 5-7, 2012 Life History Workshop: This workshop will review all available data sources on lobster growth, maturation, migration, genetics, and natural mortality (including environmental data) and identify the data sets that will be incorporated in the assessment. Location: Maine DMR, West Boothbay Harbor Office. Data submission deadline: August 6, 2012.
January 8-10, 2013 Data Workshop: This workshop will review all available indices of abundance, biosamples, and landings data and identify the data sets that will be incorporated in the assessment. Location to be determined. Data submission deadline: December 7, 2012.
March 12-14, 2013 Modeling Workshop This workshop will include, but is not limited to, the development of catch-at-length matrices and model configuration and parameterization. Location to be determined.
June 25-27, 2013 Modeling Workshop: This workshop will include but is not limited to the development of catch-at-length matrices and model configuration and parameterization. Location to be determined.