"Shortraker Rockfish"

In accordance with the approved assessment schedule, no stock assessment was conducted for this stock this year, however, a full stock assessment will be conducted in 2019. Until then, the values generated from the previous stock assessment (below) will be rolled over for 2019 specifications.

Shortraker rockfish are distributed along the continental slope in the north Pacific from Point Conception in southern California to Japan, and are commonly found between eastern Kamchatka and British Columbia.

Shortraker rockfish studies and assessment

Shortraker rockfish (Sebastes borealis) ranges from southeastern Kamchatka, north into the Bering Sea, through the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska, and south to southern California. The center of abundance appears to be Alaskan waters.

Determining accurate information on the ages of commercially important fish stocks is critical for accurate stock assessment modeling.

The National Standard Guidelines for Fishery Management Plans published by NOAA Fisheries require that a stock assessment and fishery evaluation (SAFE) report be prepared and reviewed annually for each fishery management plan (FMP).

The Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report summarizes the best available scientific information concerning the past, present, and possible future condition of the stocks, marine ecosystems, and fisheries that are managed under Federal regulation. It provides information to the Councils for determining annual harvest levels from each stock, documenting significant trends or changes in the resource, marine ecosystems, and fishery over time, and assessing the relative success of existing state and Federal fishery management programs. For the FMP for the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Area, the SAFE report is published in three sections: a “Stock Assessment” section, which comprises the bulk of this document, and “Economic Status of Groundfish Fisheries off Alaska” (i.e., the “Economic SAFE report”) and “Ecosystem Considerations” sections, which are bound separately.

The Stock Structure Working Group (SSWG) was formed in 2009 to develop a set of guidelines to assist stock assessment authors in providing recommendations on stock structure for Alaska stocks. The framework was presented at the September 2009 joint Groundfish Plan Team and a report was drafted shortly thereafter that included a template for presenting various scientific data for inferring stock structure. In November, 2010, the Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Plan Team (GOA GPT) discussed the advantages of having all stock assessment authors evaluate stock structure characteristics of specific stocks. Subsequently, the GOA GPT recommended that the shortraker rockfish template be completed for the November 2016 NPFMC Plan Team meeting. Shortraker rockfish, Sebastes borealis, is managed as a Tier 5 species with area-specific ABC and gulf-wide OFL recommendations. Included here is a summary of what is known regarding the population of shortraker rockfish in the GOA relevant to stock structure concerns along with an evaluation of the stock structure template, author recommendations, and potential management implications to be considered. The majority of this information is excerpted from the most recent full stock assessment and can be found in more detail there (Echave et al. 2015).

Shortraker rockfish (Sebastes borealis) are distributed along the continental slope in the north Pacific from Point Conception in southern California to Japan, and are commonly found between eastern Kamchatka and British Columbia (Love et al. 2002). As adults the species occurs in a narrow range of depths on the continental slope centered at ~350 m (Rooper 2008) often in areas of steep slope (Rooper and Martin 2012). Love et al. (2002) indicates the species is found at shallower depths during early life history. In bottom trawl survey data, the species is most common through the Aleutian Islands (AI) and northern Gulf of Alaska (GOA). In the Bering Sea they are found on the slope survey but not on the shelf survey.

Rockfish are assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with the availability of new survey data. For Gulf of Alaska (GOA) rockfish in alternate (even) years we present an executive summary to recommend harvest levels for the next two years. Please refer to the last full stock assessment report presented in 2011.