2023 Research Track Steering Committee

An NRCC committee that guides and oversees the research track assessment process.

About

The Research Track Steering Committee (RTSC) is a ten-member committee with representatives from the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. The RTSC looks at future research track stock assessments scheduled up to five years in advance and explores new methods and data to develop new or improve existing stock assessments.

The RTSC’s primary functions include:

Identifying new research and critical research/data/information needs for future research track assessments
Ensuring that research track assessments benefit from new research conducted prior to assessment.
Monitoring the progress of critical assessment research
Developing annual proposals for stocks or topics of future research track assessments
Considering the need to reevaluate the stock structure for species on the research track schedule
Communicating assessment research findings

A timeline depicting the five major phases of a research track stock assessment. An arrow indicates the second phase, “Steering Committee” — There are five major phases to a research track. The entire process takes many years, from planning to management.

Steering Committee Members

Russell Brown, NEFSC, Chair

Conor McManus, ASFMC

Richard Merrick, NEFMC

Paul Rago, MAFMC

Larry Alade, NEFSC

Chris Legault, NEFSC

Mark Terceiro, NEFSC

Scott Large, NEFSC

Steve Cadrin, SMAST

Lisa Kerr, UMaine

John Manderson, Open Ocean Research

Brooke Lowman, VMRC

Previous Working Group Meetings

Last updated by Northeast Fisheries Science Center on 06/05/2023

Fish Stock Assessments