Improving the Collection, Management, and Use of Marine Fisheries Data (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-8
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From page 1... ...
Fisheries management requires high-quality observations and well-supported predictions about the status and dynamics of fish populations, and these will be influenced by and influence human activities. Stock assessment scientists, economists, and social scientists must work with managers to design appropriate methods to collect, manage, and use accurate and precise biological, economic, and social data to accomplish their management responsibilities.
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The following statement of task was developed to make the committee's work more useful nationally and to address the issue of data quality, which the NRC (1998a) identified as a major factor in the performance of stock assessment models: This study will evaluate the use of data in fish stock assessments and fishery management, including a variety of issues that range from those specific to summer flounder to more generic topics of data use for assessments of marine fish stocks.
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The committee evaluated the summer flounder assessments using different stock assessment models as a means to explore issues related to the summer flounder data. Broader Data Collection and Analysis Issues The broader issue of the need to improve the quality of data used in stock assessment was highlighted in the NRC report entitled Improving Fish Stock Assessments (NRC, 1998a)
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From page 4... ...
If the NMFS surveys are less likely to catch larger fish than smaller fish, the previously documented size difference between female and male summer flounders will also need to be considered in assessments. The age structure of the summer flounder population is important and its determination will require that NMFS and fishermen work cooperatively.
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From page 5... ...
The premise of this study, however, is that lessons from the examination of the summer flounder data and assessments can be applied more broadly because summer flounder stocks, like those of many other groundfish species, are subject to both commercial and recreational fishing and cross legal boundaries of many states and the federal exclusive economic zone. The committee recommends that NMFS and the regional councils implement the recommendations of this report as a test of new ways of cooperating with commercial and recreational fishermen to improve both data quality and acceptance of stock assessment results.
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From page 6... ...
NMFS and the regional fishery management councils often suffer from a credibility problem and are more or less continuously engaged in conflicts with commercial and recreational fishermen and environmental advocates who disagree with fishery management plans or other aspects of fisheries management. These conflicts range from criticism voiced in regional council meetings and other public meetings to legal challenges to fishery management plans approved by the councils and NMFS.
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From page 7... ...
Recommendations to Regional Fishery Management Councils Regional councils should be more proactive and innovative in developing mechanisms within fishery management plans that encourage NMFS to work more effectively with commercial and recreational fishermen in data collection. Councils should play a major role in promoting greater use of data from commercial and recreational fisheries by including programs for collecting and using such data in fishery management plans, and working with NMFS to design appropriate mixtures of data collection approaches (e.g., vessel monitoring systems, observers, logbooks)
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From page 8... ...
Recommendations to Recreational Fishermen Recreational fishermen presently play a relatively small and passive role in data collection, although the interest of anglers in participating in fish-tagging studies have been well demonstrated through the efforts of the American Littoral Society and others to tag sportfish. Angler organizations should increase their cooperation with NMFS and academic scientists to assist in routine data collection and scientifically designed, targeted studies, in order to improve the recreational catch data that are needed in stock assessments.
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