ASMFC Begins Preparations for American Shad Benchmark
Stock Assessment

Arlington, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a benchmark stock assessment for American shad (Alosa sapidissima) to be completed in the summer of 2019. The goals of the assessment are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of this species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room.

The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance, stocking, biological samples (sex, maturity, age, weight, length), life history information (growth, fecundity, natural mortality, sex ratio, spawning), stock structure (tagging data, genetics), mortality (predator diet, anthropogenic sources such as hydropower dams), and catch (harvest, discard, fishing effort). An essential need is data to inform the stock assessment of discards and bycatch in other directed fisheries (e.g. the Atlantic herring fishery). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by February 23, 2018.

The Data Workshop will be conducted March 5-8, 2018 at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, 20 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. This workshop will review all available data sources for American shad and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessment. For those interested in submitting data and/or attending the American Shad Data Workshop (space is limited), please contact Jeff Kipp, Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.