Failure to eliminate overfishing and attain optimum yield in the New England groundfish fishery

Abstract

Abstract Rothschild, B. J., Keiley, E. F., and Jiao, Y. 2014. Failure to eliminate overfishing and attain optimum yield in the New England groundfish fishery. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 71: 226–233. Under US law, fishery management is required to eliminate overfishing and attain optimum yield (OY). In New England, many groundfish stocks continue to be overfished, and the fishery continues to harvest less than OY. The reasons for the shortfalls are rooted in the socio-economic structure of the management regime, and technical and scientific issues that constrain the management system. The most recent change in the management regime (days-at-sea to catch shares) and performance relative to OY and the prevention of overfishing are analyzed along with metrics used to gauge performance. The commonly used age-based production model gives a problematic perception of stock abundance. Structural issues that seem to impair achieving OY are the adherence to the single-species interpretation of multiple-species yield and the use of the Fx% proxy. Simpler approaches to stock assessment are discussed. A management system that creates feasible goals and uses improved and simpler metrics to measure performance is needed to facilitate attainment of management goals.