Estimates of sustainable yield for 50 data-poor stocks in the Pacific coast groundfish fishery management plan

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 requires Regional Fishery Management Councils to set annual catch limits for all stocks or stock complexes in Federal fishery management plans beginning in 2011. Most species listed in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan have not been assessed, in large part due to data limitations. Estimates of sustainable yield for many these species were previously based on undocumented, ad-hoc analyses. We present estimates of sustainable yield for 50 of these stocks using two recently developed models designed to inform management of data-poor stocks. These models rely on recently reconstructed time series of historical catch for west-coast groundfish species and species-specific information related to stock productivity. For this set of data-poor stocks, recent landings statistics reflect shifts in the relative importance of certain species to west-coast fisheries (e.g. increased catches of nearshore and slope rockfish species relative to shelf species), largely due to recent regulatory actions. We provide estimates of overfishing limits (OFLs) for each of the 50 stocks along with comparisons to recent catch levels. Our results suggest that status quo harvest levels range from light exploitation of some stocks to potential overfishing of others. This information could help inform decisions regarding prioritization of future stock assessments for unassessed species. OFLs are expressed as probability distributions, reflecting our uncertainty in model parameters. We select median values as point estimates of OFL, as this statistic is most consistent with National Standard 1 guidelines.