February 1, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The draft stock assessment for the Pacific whiting (hake) stock off the west coast of North America was released yesterday with higher estimates of spawning biomass than last year, which could result in an estimated median catch limit for 2017 of 969,840 tons.
In the past, Canada and the U.S. have agreed to a much lower catch limit due to the abundance of smaller fish, but this year the incidence of smaller size fish was only about 15% of the catch. However, uncertainty in abundance, recruitment, and future performance in the stock is high due in part to natural forces, so a precautionary approach is traditionally taken when setting the TAC.
Coastwide catch in 2016 was 329,427 tons, out of a TAC of 497,500 tons. The U.S. landed 70.7% of its quota; the Canadian fleets landed 53.7% of their quota. Both countries had a variety of constraints that prohibited full attainment.
The new estimate for catch is based on the whiting default harvest rule. That rule allows a level of removals that, according to the model, may result in lower spawning biomass as soon as the next two years. For that and other reasons, harvest levels have always been less. Last year’s TAC was the highest set in recent history, which shows a gradual increase since 2012.
This year’s estimate of spawning biomass at 2.129 million tons compares to last year’s estimate of 1.993 million tons, which is slightly higher than the 1.885 million tons estimated in an earlier assessment.
“The stock is estimated to be at its highest biomass level since the 1980s as a result of estimated large 2010 and 2014 cohorts. The 2014 cohort has not yet been observed by the survey and only twice by the commercial fishery, thus its absolute size is highly uncertain,” reads the report.
The draft was posted on the Pacific Whiting Treaty website by the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the Pacific Hake/Whiting Agreement Between the Governments of the United States and Canada. The Joint Management Committee (JMC) is planning a teleconference to discuss this document, during which the JTC will brief the JMC on the preliminary draft 2017 stock assessment on February 9, 2017.
The stock assessment model for 2017 is similar in structure to the 2016 model. It is fit to an acoustic survey index of abundance and annual commercial catch, as well as age compositions from the survey and commercial fisheries.
The spawning biomass in 2017 is estimated to have increased from 2016 due to the 2014 year-class likely being above average size.
This story originally appeared on Seafood News, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.