2016 Assessment of the Shallow Water Flatfish Complex in the Gulf of Alaska
February 19, 2016
Assessment for the shallow water flatfish complex has been moved to a biennial schedule to coincide with the expected receipt of new survey data. Usually, on alternate (even) years we will present an executive summary with last year’s key assessment parameters and projections for this year. A discussion at the September 2006 Groundfish Plan Team meetings concluded the following two important points for updating information in off-year assessments.
The shallow water complex is comprised of northern rock sole, southern rock sole, yellowfin sole, butter sole, starry flounder, English sole, sand sole and Alaska plaice. Northern and southern rock sole are in Tier 3a and are summarized a separate executive summary document (Turnock et al. 2016, last full assessment in A’mar et al. 2015), while the other species in the complex are in Tier 5 and summarized here.