i
Stock assessment of the coral reef fishes of Hawaii, 2016
-
2017
[PDF-12.14 MB]
Details:
-
Personal Author:
-
Corporate Authors:
-
NOAA Program & Office:
-
Description:This report contains single-species assessments of 27 reef-associated fish stocks around the main Hawaiian Islands using data from various sources collected during the 2003--2016 period. Previous management actions have set acceptable biological catches (ABCs) at the family level using either a percentile of historical catches or a catch-MSY approach. Here, we used fishery-independent size composition and abundance data from diver surveys combined with fishery-dependent catch estimates to calculate current fishing mortality rates (F), spawning potential ratios (SPR), SPR-based sustainable fishing rates (F30: F resulting in SPR = 30%), and catch levels corresponding to these sustainable rates (C30). We used a length-based model to obtain mortality rates and a relatively simple age-structured population model to obtain the various stock status metrics. C30 were obtained by combining F30 estimates with current population biomass estimates derived directly from diver surveys or indirectly from the total catch. The overfishing limits (OFL) corresponding to a 50% risk of overfishing was defined as the median of the C30 distribution. A novel data-poor approach was used to estimate life history parameters for 11 species with either no or inadequate published growth and maturity studies. We used Monte Carlo simulations to incorporate all sources of uncertainty (i.e., life history parameters, average length, abundance, and catch). Of the 27 assessed species, 11 had median F/F30 ratios greater than 1 and therefore median SPR values below the minimum overfished limit of 30%. Another two were close to this limit (30% d SPR < 35%). This suggests some stocks may be experiencing overfishing and, if at equilibrium, may also be overfished. Surgeonfishes and parrotfishes were the families with the most species with low SPR values, while goatfishes generally had higher SPR values. Typically, species with low SPR were the ones with long lifespan (i.e., surgeonfishes) or highly targeted (i.e., jacks, snappers). Species with shorter lifespans (i.e., goatfishes) fared generally better. As a final step, overfishing probability distributions for a range of catch limits were generated for all 27 species. [doi:10.7289/V5/TM-PIFSC-60 (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5/TM-PIFSC-60)]
-
Keywords:
-
Series:
-
DOI:
-
CoRIS Project ID:CRCP Project ID ; 1976
-
Document Type:
-
Place as Subject:
-
Rights Information:Public Domain
-
Compliance:Library
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
