2016 Assessment of the Deepwater Flatfish Stock Complex in the Gulf of Alaska
February 14, 2016
The Gulf of Alaska deepwater flatfish complex (consisting of Dover sole, Greenland turbot, and deepsea sole) is assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with the availability of new survey data. For Gulf of Alaska deepwater flatfish, in alternate (even) years we present an executive summary to recommend harvest levels for the next two years.
Dover sole is assessed using an age-structured model and Tier 3 determination. Thus, the single species projection model was run using parameter values from the accepted 2015 Dover sole assessment model (McGilliard and Palsson 2015), together with updated catch information for 2015 and 2016, to predict stock status for Dover sole in 2017 and 2018 and to make ABC recommendations for those years. Greenland turbot and deepsea sole fall under Tier 6. ABC’s and OFL’s for Tier 6 species are based on historical catch levels and therefore these quantities cannot be updated. ABC’s and OFL’s for the individual species in the deepwater flatfish complex are determined only as an intermediate step for the purpose of calculating complex-level OFL’s and ABC’s