New Stock Assessment Guidelines Formalize Wide Data Net

by Laurie Schreiber

NEWPORT, R.I. – Coming on the heels of questions about the accuracy and impartiality of stock assessments conduced by Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), the Northeast Region Coordinating Council (NRCC) has drafted new guidelines for the development of stock assessments.

Among the changes, the guidelines formalize the idea that a wide net should be cast for sources of data. This may include new sources of information as well as data not collected by NEFSC. Acquiring data can be done in various ways, such as email requests, phone calls, and public meetings with industry/academia.

Guidelines will be phased in for use in 2016.

Dr. Jim Weinberg, NEFSC’s liaison to the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), presented the guidelines to NEFMC at its June meeting.

“It’s important to step back and think about what the groups do and how they fit in other, larger processes,” Weinberg said.

Stock assessments are largely a scientific exercise additionally informed by others with knowledge of the fisheries, he said.

The products are peer-reviewed, and then used by NEFMC, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service to make management decisions.

Up to now, he said, the membership of the working groups has been “a random collection of individuals who perform stock assessments,” the membership left “largely to chance.”

Instead, he said, NRCC decided to create a structure for participation.

Among the considerations is group size.

“In the past, group sizes have often been too large or too small. This can impede progress,” he said. “If you have too many or too few experts, you can have an imbalance in how the working group moves ahead. Or you can have a lack of expertise on certain subjects. Also, in the past, we’ve strived to be inclusive, while at the same time worrying a little bit about independence and advocacy. That is, are people on the working group lacking independence, or are they going to advocate for a particular outcome?”

NRCC recommendations include guidelines based on member expertise, as well as size and balance of the working group, he said.

To address the subject, the NRCC formed its own working group to craft guidelines in 2013, but NEFSC had been discussing the subject several years before that, Weinberg said.

“Because this is a new process that we’re phasing in, we expect this be a living document that will evolve over time, as we learn what works and what doesn’t,” Weinberg said. “This is basically a first shot.”

Among the guidelines, the people doing the work cannot be the people who are going to review the work.

Group size will vary by stock assessment, and is dependent on the specific expertise needed to inform and develop the analyses and models to complete the assessment. Typically, the types of information and the analytical components used to build an assessment include biology, ecology/ecosystem science, data and survey design (both fishery-independent and fishery-dependent data), mathematics/statistics and modeling methods, and understanding of the fishery and its management.

According to the new guidelines, it is advantageous to keep working groups reasonably small to allow for consensus-building and efficient development of the stock assessments. NRCC recommended working group sizes of 4-8 member and a balanced representation in core assessment areas. The specific number of members will depend on the overall workload of the assessment and range of expertise required.