Deroba, Jonathan J.

"Spatial pattern analysis of survey catches have been shown to reflect changes in Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank Atlantic herring abundance, but no such analysis has been conducted using data from the last 11 years (1999-2009). I conducted a spatial pattern analysis by updating previous analyses looking for temporal trends in the spatial distributions of Atlantic herring spring and fall survey catches during 1963-2009. The distribution of herring catch locations expanded to the southwest during spring bottom trawl surveys and generally occurred over a broader area during fall bottom trawl surveys as abundance increased during the mid- to late 1980s. Similarly, herring capture locations during spring and fall bottom trawl surveys became more evenly distributed among latitudes and more closely aggregated as abundance increased. These patterns that are indicative of relatively high abundance have persisted through 2009"--Abstract.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)