Photo courtesy of Ned Laman
At this meeting, the SSC reviewed the models and output being used for the Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) 5-year review summary report, which is under preparation for Council review later this year, and the Council supported the SSC’s recommendations for improvements. The SSC received reports on progress with assessing EFH component 1, descriptions and maps of EFH by species, and EFH component 2, the effects of fishing on EFH. Under component 1, staff reported on results from the revised species distribution model (SDM)-based EFH maps, which have also undergone review by all stock assessment authors. The SSC found that overall, the information provided exhibits substantial improvement and refinement of EFH descriptions from the previous 5-year review (2017). There are, however, a subset of stocks for which stock assessment authors noted concerns with the SDM-based maps, particularly for species that are not well represented in surveys. The SSC had several recommendations for improvement to the component 1 assessment, as detailed in SSC report. For example, the SSC requests that the final report include a summary table that evaluates survey reliability, seasonal representativeness, and spatial representativeness of the data used in the SDM models, for species where concerns were raised in the stock author review.
The SSC also reviewed the methodology for the fishing effects (FE) model, which is largely the same as that used in 2017, although with new data and some updates. The SSC supports using this version to evaluate fishing impacts for the 2022 5-year EFH review cycle, after addressing the recommendations in the SSC report. The SSC recommended, and the Council concurred, that for species where concerns have been raised about SDM-based EFH descriptions, the analysis should bring in other sources of information to address any question of possible mitigation.
The SSC is currently scheduled to review output from the fishing effects model in June 2022, and the Council is tentatively scheduled to receive the 2022 EFH 5-year review summary report in October 2022. The Council noted that this schedule may be adjusted if needed, to ensure staff have sufficient time to address SSC recommendations.
Staff contact is Sarah Rheinsmith.
