Wednesday February 12, DFO will be hosting Kathryn Ford, Director of Population and Ecosystems Monitoring and Analysis Division at the NEFSC to discuss “Developing the NEFSC Bottom Trawl Survey Contingency Plan”. This seminar will take place from 3-4 in SMAST East 101-103 and will also be available on Zoom.

Abstract:

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) collects data relevant to the sustainable management of fisheries under the mandates of the Magnuson Stevens Act and to meet the mission of NMFS, which is responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources and their habitat. One of the preeminent data collections in the NMFS Northeast Fishery Science Center (NEFSC) survey enterprise is the Bottom Trawl Survey (BTS). The NEFSC BTS is a fishery-independent survey which informs population assessments for more than 50 fisheries stocks and the Status of the Ecosystem assessments. A fishery-independent survey utilizes scientific methods within an experimental design in order to measure fish populations and vital rates. They are distinct from fishery-dependent surveys, which sample data from commercial and non-commercial fisheries. The main advantage of including fishery-independent surveys in the fisheries management context is that they provide less biased estimates of trends of fish populations and biological information than fishery dependent data alone. In the case of the NEFSC BTS, the survey also provides the most consistent long term information for assessing ecosystem trends on the U.S. east coast shelf. The value of this survey is linked to its stability and consistency. However, the survey is facing increasing pressures that are making fundamental methodological and statistical design changes necessary. The BTS is facing four primary pressures: marine development, lost sea days, a multi-season loss of the sampling vessel, and lapses in appropriations. These four pressures were assessed in the context of developing a contingency plan for the BTS to consider avenues available for ensuring the long term viability of the survey. This presentation will describe the ongoing process to develop the contingency plan cooperatively with the Mid-Atlantic and New England Fisheries Management Councils and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission via the Northeast Trawl Advisory Panel.