Using Stock Vulnerability to Evaluate Fishery-Independent Survey Coverage and Inform Sampling Priorities

Abstract

The consequences of mis-managing vulnerable stocks (i.e., those with low productivity and high susceptibility to depletion) are high and potentially permanent. To support sustainable fisheries management, stock assessments can be improved by increasing the quantity and quality of fishery-independent survey (i.e., survey) data. Social and economic value typically determine sampling priorities, but high value stocks are not necessarily at the highest risk for depletion. So, we modified the Productivity-Susceptibility Analysis, a data-limited fishery assessment tool, to identify which stocks are most vulnerable to unpredicted stock depletion (due to overfishing, environmental stressors, or mis-management from unknown or mis-specified stock status). We examined the vulnerability of 426 fish stocks or species within stock complexes that NOAA Fisheries assessed from 2005 to 2024 (excluding highly migratory and salmon stocks). We then examined patterns of vulnerability by taxonomy, area and survey method. The most vulnerable stocks were demersal teleosts (e.g., Psychrolutids, Macrourids, Scorpaenids). On average, the Caribbean Sea, West Coast and Pacific Islands contained the most highly vulnerable un-sampled stocks. Visual surveys in Alaska sampled the most vulnerable stocks on average, followed by bottom trawl surveys in Alaska. Across all areas, bottom trawl surveys provided stock assessment information for nearly twice as many stocks as any other survey method on average. Data limitations can lead to large buffers around catch limits and whether highly vulnerable stocks are subject to directed fisheries or are constraining ‘choke’ stocks in others, considering stock vulnerability alongside social and economic value may lead to better fishery management outcomes.