Thanks to Tom Swatzel on the SAFMC for sending this update
I wanted to give you an update concerning efforts to increase the annual catch limit (ACL) for black sea bass.
The black sea bass stock assessment update was completed last month. The assessment indicated that the black sea bass stock is rebuilt and that overfishing ended in 2011.
On Wednesday, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) reviewed the assessment report, as required by law, and made their recommendations to the fishery council as to the black sea bass acceptable biological catch (ABC), which is the basis upon which the council will set a new ACL during a special webinar meeting on May 13th.
The SSC accepted the assessment results and recommended the following ABCs based on landed catch (whole weight):
2013 = 2.133 million lbs.
2014 = 1.992 million lbs.
2015 = 1.814 million lbs.
The reason the recommended ABCs decline is because there are excess fish over and above the maximum sustainable yield (MSY).
The fishery council set the current black sea bass ACL of 847,000 lbs. (whole weight) equal to the ABC, so an alternative for the council to consider at the meeting would be to set the ACL at the SSC recommended ABCs. However, according to scientists, catches at these levels could reduce the stock below the biomass at MSY and might not be sustainable over the long term.
A more conservative alternative the council might consider is setting the ACL at the yield at 75 percent of the fishing mortality rate that maintains MSY as estimated from the assessment. This is sustainable over the long term and is what the council chose for golden tilefish. Using this method would set the ACL at 1.756 million lbs. It would require the council to change its ACL control rule for black sea bass.
All of this is good news in that the black sea bass ACL will more than double under either alternative the council chooses.
And with the extraordinary fishery council meeting on May 13t