Developing Scientific Methods

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is collaborating with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries of the United States (US) to develop a modelling approach for the 2021 assessment framework for Eastern Georges Bank haddock in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) management unit 5Zjm. The 5Zjm haddock stock is jointly managed by Canada and the United States through the Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee (TRAC). An international working group will be formed in September 2020 to work towards developing the benchmark stock assessment framework for the Eastern Georges Bank haddock. The TRAC rejected the existing analytical modelling approach, a virtual population assessment (VPA), in 2019 because the model could no longer provide reliable results due to the presence of large retrospective patterns. Other challenges with modelling the population dynamics of the stock include density dependent growth driven by exceptionally large year classes. Science advice for management of the 5Zjm haddock stock is currently developed using indicators. A modelling approach to provide reliable management advice is needed.

The scope of this project will be to evaluate of the technical aspects surrounding analysis of fisheries data and to lead the modelling work to be conducted for 5Zjm haddock. The modelling approach will ultimately be decided collaboratively by the working group but is expected to be based on either using an assessment model with multiple sensitivities or having multiple operating models.