143rd Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

September 08 - 14, 2013

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act mandates the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to manage fish stocks and prevent overfishing in all U.S. fisheries.  NMFS uses various stock assessment models to determine stock status (overfished, or undergoing overfishing).  These models are often heavily dependent on indices of abundance generated from fishery-independent (FI) survey data.  This symposium’s main objective, with a focus on multi-species surveys, is to identify optimal survey and analytical approaches for maximizing FI data utility in support of stock assessments.  Specific issues that will be addressed include (1) optimizing survey design in multi-species surveys (including assessment and incorporation of spatial autocorrelation), (2) identifying critical survey-related research needs to improve data utility (e.g., assessing gear-specific catchability), (3) maximizing survey efficiencies in periods of decreasing funding, (4) identifying strengths and weaknesses of analytical methodologies used to generate indices of abundance, and (5) use of FI data to support the transition to ecosystem-based assessment and management approaches.  This is a methods-oriented symposium in which participants share new technology, analytical tools and unique applications to increase the efficiency of FI surveys and the utility of FI data.