Historical Reconstruction of Oregon's Commercial Fisheries Landings Information Reports 2014-02

Identification Information

Citation

Originator: Karnowski, M., V. Gertseva and A. Stephens

Publish Date: February 2014

Online Link: None

BPA Project #:

Contact Information

Agency: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Name: Cedric Cooney

Job Position: Natural Resources Data and Systems Manager

Telephone: 503-947-6094

E-Mail Address: cedric.x.cooney@odfw.oregon.gov

Description

Abstract: Historical catch information is essential for fisheries stock assessment. Without knowing the catch history it is difficult to understand how a stock responds to exploitation (Hilborn and Walters 2003). On the West Coast of the United States, fisheries are managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC). Stock assessments for the groundfish species under the PFMC’s purview are conducted every other year. Recent catch data (from 1981 on) for these assessments are available from the Pacific Fisheries Information Network (PacFIN), a regional fisheries database that manages fishery-dependent information in cooperation with National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and West Coast state agencies. Prior to 1981, however, catch information is sparse, and there is no database analogous to PacFIN to handle the data. Historical reconstruction of catches prior to 1981 has been conducted by assessment authors for each assessment individually, and authors have often approached the problem differently, using different data sources and a variety of methods. The PFMC recommended undertaking a coordinated reconstruction of West Coast groundfish landings to provide a comprehensive species-specific time series for use in stock assessments. The intent of this coordinated reconstruction is to improve the reliability of historical landings by identifying and drawing on preferred data sources, as well as applying a standardized method across all species. This should reduce duplication of effort and use of inconsistent assumptions by assessment authors in reconstructing catch, and expedite development and review of stock assessments in the future. This document outlines the methodology we developed in a joint effort of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and the NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) to reconstruct historical catches of species commercially landed in Oregon. The original goal was to focus on historical landings of groundfish alone; however the effort was expanded to include all species harvested commercially. The list of these species is provided in Table A1, Appendix A. We also revised species specific landings made within multi-species market categories during the first six years of the PacFIN era (1981-1986). Reconstruction of the historical landings included several steps, in which we: 1) Determined the annual landings made within each market category, by gear; 2) Derived species compositions for each multi-species market category by gear, year and spatial stratum (where available); 3) Applied the year specific species compositions (from Step 2) to the historical landings in each multi-species market category (from Step 1) to obtain a species-specific time series of landings; 4) Summed the species-specific landings across market categories by gear to obtain a final time series of landings for individual species in Oregon. This report is associated with a data file, called Oregon_commercial_landings_1889-1986_v1.0.xls (OCL), which is available from ODFW and NWFSC. The landings are reported in round pounds, which represent the whole–fish weight of the landed catch. Where historically landings were reported as dressed weights, those weights were converted to round pounds prior to incorporation into the file. The reconstruction does not include estimates of recreational catches, foreign fleet landings, or discard associated with commercial harvest. We focused on the reconstruction of catch landed in Oregon. Fish landed in Oregon, however, are not necessarily caught in state waters. Oregon vessels, particularly those from northern ports, such as Astoria/Warrenton, frequently fish in waters off of Washington, but return to Oregon to land their fish.

Purpose:

Time Period of Content:

Geographic Extent: Oregon Coast

Status: Final

Use Constraints:

Format: PDF File

Data Quality Information

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Data Information

No data information was supplied.

Entity and Attribute Information

Attributes Description: Field attribute information is available in the attached file(s).

Is a physical copy maintained for reference at Headquarters? No