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Harvest Advice for Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) in British Columbia Waters for 2020

Regional Science Response Process – Pacific Region

May 30, 2020
Virtual meeting

Chairperson: Linnea Flostrand

Context

Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) from the northern subpopulation of the eastern Pacific Ocean (associated with the California Current Ecosystem) has a distribution that can range between Baja California to southeast Alaska. In winter and spring months, most of this stock has the tendency to occur in waters off the California coast in association with spawning. Prior to, and during summer months, large aggregations of Pacific Sardine migrate from spawning habitat to more northern waters mainly to forage. Migratory patterns can be affected by age structure, population size and oceanographic conditions. Typically, most Pacific Sardine that migrate into British Columbia (BC) waters are the larger and older fish in the population.  Pacific Sardine has not been fished in BC waters since 2012 due to reduced migration (a general absence of Pacific Sardine in BC waters) and fishery closures in 2015 to 2019.

To calculate potential harvest options for the BC sardine fishery, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) adopted a harvest control rule in 2013 that applies a harvest rate to an estimate of age-1 and older (age 1+) biomass that exceeds 150,000 t (DFO 2013). As described in the 2013 science advisory report, Harvest rates (h) ranging from 3 to 5% were selected to calculate the range of potential harvest options.

A 2020 stock assessment process incorporating an updated base model of the northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine by the United States (US) National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) occurred in February 2020. The resulting 2020 stock assessment includes information on stock status and forecasts of age 1+ sardine biomass informed by data sets representing fishery landings, biological sample data and fishery independent survey findings in United States coastal waters to December 2019.

DFO Fisheries Management is requesting that Science Branch use the updated 2020 U.S. stock assessment results of the northern subpopulation of Pacific Sardine (based on Kuriyama et al. 2020) and provide harvest advice for Pacific Sardine for the 2020 season as per the harvest control rule described in DFO (2013).  The advice arising from this Canadian Science Advice Secretariat (CSAS) Science Response (SR) will be used to inform management decisions on the 2020 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the Canadian Pacific Sardine Fishery.

Objectives

Science information and advice will be prepared on harvest options for Pacific Sardine in BC using the process described in DFO (2013) and a Science Response will be used to document outcomes.

The objectives of this SR process are to:

Expected Publication

Expected Participation

References

DFO 2013. Review of harvest control rules for Pacific Sardine and seasonal biomass and migration in British Columbia for 2013. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2013/037.

Kuriyama, P.T., Zwolinski, J.P., Hill, K.T., and Crone, P.R. 2020. Assessment of the Pacific sardine resource in 2020 for U.S. management in 2020-21. Pacific Fishery Management Council, April 2020 Briefing Book, Agenda Item D.3, Attachment 1. Portland, Oregon.

Notice

Participation to CSAS peer review meetings is by invitation only.

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