2018 Assessment of the Flathead Sole Stock Complex in the Gulf of Alaska
January 30, 2019
The Gulf of Alaska flathead sole stock is assessed every four years and was last assessed in 2017. In years without a full assessment, we present an executive summary to recommend harvest levels for the next two years. Please refer to the 2017 full stock assessment report for further information regarding the assessment model. A full stock assessment document with updated assessment and projection model results will be presented in 2021.
Flathead sole is assessed using an age-structured model and Tier 3 determination. Thus, the single species projection model was run using parameter values from the accepted 2017 flathead sole assessment model (Turnock et al. 2017), together with updated catch information for 2017-2018, to predict stock status for flathead sole in 2019 and 2020 and to make ABC recommendations for those years. Projections are conducted using numbers-at-age for flathead sole from age 3-21+ and historical recruitment of age 3 individuals is used to calculate OFL’s and ABC’s.