2013 Assessment of the Shark Stock Complex in the Gulf of Alaska

April 23, 2013

The shark complex (spiny dogfish, Pacific sleeper shark, salmon shark and other/unidentified sharks) in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) is assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule. However, for the 2013 assessment cycle, which would normally be a full assessment, a summary assessment is presented due to government shutdown and the abbreviated working period.

GOA sharks are a Tier 6 complex, however, the ABC and OFL for spiny dogfish is calculated using a Tier 5 approach with the survey biomass estimates considered a minimum estimate of biomass. The complex OFL is based on the sum of the Tier 5 and Tier 6 (average historical catch between the years 1997 - 2007) recommendations for the individual species (ABC is 75% of OFL). For this summary, we have updated the time series of catch through Oct 24, 2013 to reflect any changes that might have occurred in the Catch Accounting System (for the years 2003 – 2013). For further information regarding the assessment, please refer to last year’s full stock assessment, which is available online (Tribuzio et al. 2011, http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/REFM/docs/2011/GOAshark.pdf). A full stock assessment document will be presented in next year’s SAFE report.