2016 Assessment of the Skate Stock Complex in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
February 13, 2016
The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) skate complex is managed in aggregate, with a single set of harvest specifications applied to the entire complex. However, to generate the harvest recommendations the stock is divided into two units. Harvest recommendations for Alaska skate Bathyraja parmifera, the most abundant skate species in the BSAI, are made using the results of an age structured model and Tier 3. The remaining species (“other skates”) are managed under Tier 5 due to a lack of data. The Tier 3 and Tier 5 recommendations are combined to generate recommendations for the complex as a whole.
For Alaska skates, the Team concurred with the author and recommended Model 2. However, concern about the change in estimated spawning biomass between the two assessments led the Team to recommend rolling over the lower 2014 ABC for 2015 and 2016. The Team also recommends, for September 2015, an evaluation of the optimum starting year, age composition data, and recruitment variability. Recruitment variability may help explain the change in the estimates of spawning biomass. The Team reminds the author to include a retrospective analysis and harvest scenarios next year.