"Northern Rockfish"

NOTE: In accordance with the approved schedule, no assessment was conducted for this stock this year, however, a full stock assessment will be conducted in 2021. Until then, the values generated from the previous stock assessment (below) will be rolled...

We use a statistical age-structured model as the primary assessment tool for GOA northern rockfish which qualifies as a Tier 3 stock. This assessment consists of a population model, which uses survey and fishery data to generate a historical time...

In 2005, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) rockfish were moved to a biennial assessment schedule with full assessments in even years to coincide with the frequency of trawl surveys in the Aleutian Islands (AI) and the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) slope.

The Other Rockfish (OR) complex in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) is assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with the availability of new trawl survey biomass estimates.

In 2017, the scheduled frequency for some stock assessments was changed in response to the National Stock Assessment Prioritization effort.

BSAI northern rockfish are not overfished or approaching an overfished condition.

Scientists look at potential impacts of changing ocean temperatures and other environmental conditions on Alaska ecosystems.

Gulf of Alaska (GOA) rockfish are assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule. In 2017, the scheduled frequency for some stock assessments was changed in response to the National Stock Assessment Prioritization effort. Prior to 2017, Gulf of Alaska (GOA) rockfish were assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with the availability of new trawl survey data. Under the new schedule, full assessments for northern rockfish will be conducted in even years and partial assessments will be presented in odd years, resulting in the same frequency of assessment but age compositions from the most recent survey being available to each full assessment. For 2018, we present a full stock assessment document with updated assessment and projection model results. In this full assessment, we update the 2015 assessment model with new data available since 2015 and present a new model fitting to a model-based index of abundance from the NOAA GOA bottom trawl survey created using a Vector Autoregressive Spatio-temporal (VAST) model.

In 2005, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) rockfish were moved to a biennial assessment schedule with full assessments in even years to coincide with the frequency of trawl surveys in the Aleutian Islands (AI) and the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) slope. In 2017, the scheduled frequency for some stock assessments was changed in response to the National Stock Assessment Prioritization effort. Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) northern rockfish will maintain a biennial schedule but with full assessments in odd years, with the next full assessment scheduled for 2019. In years without a full assessment, a “partial assessment” is produced by revising the recent catch data and re-running the projection model using the results from the previous full assessment as a starting point. Therefore, this update does not incorporate any changes to the 2016 assessment methodology but does update the catches for 2016-2018 and provides estimated catches for 2019-2020. The partial assessment also includes estimates of catch/biomass (i.e., exploitation rates), using estimated total biomass.

This report presents the summary views of Drs. Patrick Cordue, Cynthia Jones, and Robert Mohn on each of three terms of reference, as the reviewers were required to generate under the review statement of work. As such, the report only collates the summary views to generate a concise set of summaries, and it does not otherwise alter the reviewers’ text. For a more detailed discussion on each term, the reader should refer to the reviewers’ full reports.