2013 Assessment of the Squid Stock Complex in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands

April 23, 2013

Because reliable biomass estimates do not exist for squids in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI), harvest recommendations are made using Tier 6 criteria. Under Tier 6, Overfishing Level (OFL) is defined as the average catch during the period 1978-1995, and Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) is defined as 0.75 * OFL. As a result the harvest recommendations do not change from year to year. New information regarding squids comes mainly from the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) slope and Aleutian Islands (AI) trawl surveys. Because these are biennial surveys, full assessments are only conducted in years when those surveys occur. In “off” years, an executive summary is prepared with updated catch data.