2018 Assessment of the Arrowtooth Flounder Stock in the Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska (GOA) arrowtooth flounder (ATF, Atheresthes stomias) stock is managed in Tier 3a and is assessed on a biennial basis to coincide with the GOA groundfish trawl survey. These surveys occur in odd years, and for these years a full assessment of arrowtooth flounder in the GOA area is conducted. On even years, parameter values from the previous year’s assessment model (Spies et al. 2017) and total catch information for the current and previous year are used to make projections and to recommend ABC and OFL for the following two years.

A single species projection model was used to predict the status of the GOA ATF stock for 2019 and 2020 and to calculate ABC for those years. The projection model incorporated parameter values from the 2017 assessment model (Spies et al. 2017) as well as catch information from 2017 and 2018 (partial through October 8, 2017).

Based on the projection model results, recommended ABCs for 2019 and 2020 are 145,841 t and 140,865 t, respectively, and the OFLs are 174,598 t and 168,634 t. The new ABC and OFL recommendations for 2019 are similar to the 2017 ABCs and OFL developed using the 2017 full assessment model. The stock is not overfished, and is not approaching a condition of being overfished. Reference values are presented in the following table.