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Alternative Survey Indices for Predicting Availability of Longfin Squid to Seasonal Northwest Atlantic Fisheries
Author(s) -
Lange Anne M.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
north american journal of fisheries management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1548-8675
pISSN - 0275-5947
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8675(1991)011<0443:asifpa>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - fishery , catch per unit effort , abundance (ecology) , oceanography , stock assessment , biology , environmental science , geography , fishing , geology
Catch data from research vessel surveys were used to determine if statistical measures of spatial dispersion can be useful in predicting the availability of migratory, schooling species to specific seasonal fisheries. As an example, spring and autumn bottom trawl catches of the migratory longfin squid Loligo pealei were used to calculate three measures of the species' dispersion in the U.S. Middle Atlantic Bight. Commercial catch per unit effort served as an index of longfin squid availability to the inshore (primarily spring–summer) fishery. Results suggested that indices of dispersion for stocks that do not remain within the area of the fishery throughout the year may be more useful in predicting subsequent availability than are indices of relative abundance. The simplest of the three measures examined here–the proportion of tows within a survey yielding no individuals of the species, calculated from the autumn survey data–exhibited a significant negative correlation with the index of availability and was a more robust predictor of fishery performance than were the highly variable abundance indices. Less dispersion in the stock at the time of the autumn survey generally correlated with lower availability to the fishery.