A fish stock assessment survey design for Subarea 48.1

There is a lack of information regarding the abundance of exploitable finfish in Subarea 48.1. A comprehensive, bottom trawl survey offish stocks in Subarea 48.1 would make it easier for the Working Group on Fish Stock Assessment to assess the stocks in this region and assist the Scientific Committee in giving management advice to the Commission. A stratified random survey is proposed; the strata correspond to depth ranges (stratum 1: 50-150 m; stratum 2: 151-250 m; stratum 3: 251-500 m). A rule is derived from catch rate data obtained during previous stock assessment surveys around Elephant Island to allocate sampling effort among the three depth strata. One hundred and seventy six trawl stations are randomly selected by gridding the survey area. The survey is designed to cover all of Subarea 48.1.