An oceanic whitetip shark swims near the surface of the water. Photo courtesy of John Carlson.
Management Track Stock Assessments
Management assessments provide routine, scheduled, and updated advice to directly inform management actions. These assessments provide scientific information to the appropriate fishery management bodies to help them make informed decisions.
Designed to be simple, efficient, and flexible, management track assessments incorporate new information on a regular cycle. Each stock has its own established cycle for updates. Some are updated every year and others have more than a year between updates. This ensures that each stock assessment is updated frequently enough to support management actions. It also ensures that all involved in the process know when and how often these updates will be available.
Management Track
- More information from the Northeast Region Coordinating Council
- Assessment process and
- Long-term assessment schedule
The Terms of Reference (pdf,1pg) define the purpose and products of management track assessments.
Management Track Assessments are held twice a year (usually in June and September).
Search 2022/2023 assessment meeting dates
Levels of Peer Review
Peer reviews are an important step in the scientific process. They ensure the research and data used are of the highest quality.
The level of peer review is first proposed by the lead analyst. The anticipated amount and type of changes to the assessment determines the level. The proposed level is then vetted by a panel of external experts, the Assessment Oversight Panel. They recommend the level of peer review for each assessment plan.
Level 1 is a simple update to the previously approved assessment. It does not require a formal peer review. Levels 2 and 3 allow for varying degrees of changes to the assessment, and warrant a formal external peer review.
More Information
An oceanic whitetip shark swims near the surface of the water. Photo courtesy of John Carlson.
