Download SSC Report to CFMC

SSC Report to CFMC
149th CFMC Meeting held April 22-23, 2014
SSC Meeting held March 25-27, 2014
Criteria for Species Inclusion in Islandbased Fishery Management Plans
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National Standards
Draft Criteria
Test Species Review
Trial Application of Criteria
Development of Thresholds
National Standards
• NS 1 requires a description of the species
involved in the fishery
– Target stocks
– Non-target stocks
– Ecosystem component species
National Standards
• NS 3 – a stock shall be managed as a unit
throughout its range.
• Choice of a management unit may be
organized around biological, geographic,
economic, technical, social, or ecological
perspectives.
National Standards
• NS 7 - management measures shall minimize
costs and avoid unnecessary duplication
• Factors to be considered for inclusion within
an FMP:
– Importance of the fishery
– Biological condition of the stock
– Management by other programs
– Competing interests and conflicts
– Economic condition of a fishery
– Needs of a developing fishery
– Costs balanced against the benefits
Suggested draft criteria
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Biology
Habitat
Range
Economic importance
Target species
By-catch
Landings
Data availability
Ecological Value
Method of harvest/gear
Cultural considerations
Protected resources
Indicator Status
Market Demand
Suggested draft criteria
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Biology
Habitat
Range
Economic importance
Target species
By-catch
Landings
Data availability
Ecological Value
Method of harvest/gear
Cultural considerations
Protected resources
Indicator Status
Market Demand
Draft Criteria
• Biology – defined as question of
vulnerability/productivity. Is species particularly at
risk?
• Habitat Specificity– defined as a question of
vulnerability due to particular dependence on limited
or vulnerable habitat during some life stage
• Range – defined as whether species is either 1)
effectively limited to local waters, 2) limited to EEZ, 3)
spans both, or 4) is a HMS
• Economic Importance – defined as total economic
value, not just ex-vessel price. This would include, for
example, nonconsumptive use, recreational value,
targeted species, “filler” species and socio-cultural
importance
Draft Criteria
• Target species vs Bycatch
• Landings – to be used first to establish lower and upper
thresholds for automatic rejection from or inclusion in
an FMP, respectively.
• Ecological Value – defined as having a unique or large
ecological function relative to habitat (esp. coral reefs),
or trophic/community structure, e.g., keystone species,
apex predator, key forage species such that
management is needed to sustain that function.
• Protected/Management Status – defined as whether
the species is fully protected or partially protected
within an existing management framework within EEZ
or local waters
Test Species and Data
• Selected species
– spiny lobster, dolphinfish, ballyhoo, octopus, mackerel
and mullet
• Available data
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Puerto Rico Commercial
Puerto Rico Recreational
St. Thomas/St. John
St. Croix
1988 – 2012
2000 – 2013
2000 – 2012
1999 – 2012
• The SSC recommends that that the 2005 east
coast correction factor be re-examined by the PR
DNER with the assistance of the SEFSC.
Most criteria were weighted as high (more likely to be included
an FMU, medium or low (less likely to be included as a FMU)
FMU
Spiny
Lobster
Dolphinfish
Octopus
Bycatch
Ecological
Value
Protected/
Managed
Resource
M
H
H?
M
M
M
L
L
Biology
Habitat
Specificity
Range
L
L
H
L
M (PR)
H
(STT/STX)
H
H
L
H (PR,
STX)
M (STT)
M
L (PR)
L (STX)
L (STT)
M
H
L
M
L
M
Economic
Target
Importance Species
Yearly
Mean
Landings
VH
VH
The SSC did not assess the following:
• Weightings among the various criteria
• How they would be combined (for example mean, median) for an overall score
• How that score would be interpreted (scaled)
for species inclusion on not
Dichotomous decision tree for automatic
inclusion/exclusion of stocks based on thresholds
Thresholds
• Actual Thresholds were not developed
• Use of thresholds did not take into consideration
the possibility of some species with low landings
being considered as potential “Ecosystem
Component Species”.
• The SSC requests that the SEFSC develop graphs
of species landings (lbs and $) that could be used
to see if obvious threshold break points can be
identified
ACL Control Rules
• Discussion motivated by scalers used for
setting the Management Buffer when
determining ACLs: (1) 0.90 for normal species,
(2) 0.85 = for species undergoing overfishing,
and what to do when a species is determined
it is no longer undergoing overfishing
• Process for overfished stocks conducted
before the ORCS process developed
ACL Control Rules
• The SSC requests guidance on role of SSC for
setting the ABCs
• Recommends that, given the 5-year experience
working with ACLs within the US Caribbean and
elsewhere in the nation concerning data-poor
stocks, the process of setting ACLs be revisited
from start to finish prior to developing islandspecific plans
• Until then, the SSC recommends the CFMC keep
using the current control rule under the
rationale from which it was developed.
Abrir la Sierra, Bajo de Sico,
Tourmaline (ABT) Closures
The SSC recommends that it be allowed to
review the scientific information relative to the
ABT Closures prior to a final decision by the
CFMC