August 18, 2026 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Commission has updated its popular publication on the science of stock assessments. The new edition of the Guide to Fisheries Science and Stock Assessments (Guide) is currently available in StoryMap format and will be available in PDF format in the coming weeks. The new version of the Guide substantially revises the prior version, updating and streamlining content to be approachable and accessible to those interested in learning more about stock assessments and their use in management. Following is an excerpt from the Guide:
“Management of coastal and marine resources is a complex process that balances what we know about the fish populations we are managing (like the size of a fish population, its habitat, and the food it relies on, and the factors that affect its growth, reproduction, and life span) and the people that use the resources. The tricky part is we can’t easily count how many fish are in a population, so we have to use stock assessments to calculate these numbers. That’s why we created this guide – to show you what goes into a stock assessment, from what types of information are collected to how various models work to how the assessment results are considered for management.”