The collapse of 2+3K American plaice : was it over fishing? / M.J. Morgan, W.B. Brodie, and D.W. Kulka.: Fs70-1/2000-131E-PDF

The population of American plaice in the waters off Labrador and on the northeast Newfoundland shelf declined substantially during the mid to late 1980's, early 1990's at a time when reported catches were very low. Hutchings examined the overlap in distribution between American plaice and cod in research vessel survey data and concluded that unreported bycatch in the cod fishery could explain the decline of the Div. 2J portion of the Subarea 2 + Div. 3K stock of American plaice. This paper evaluates the method proposed by Hutchings and uses reported and observer estimates of catch to investigate potential catch levels relative to survey estimates of population abundance. This method does not appear to be a good predictor of American plaice bycatch in the cod fishery as most of the regressions were not significant and it requires extrapolation well beyond the range of the data used to build the regressions. Furthermore there was little overlap between the extent of the commercial cod fishing grounds and the distribution of American plaice in the fall surveys. For this stock, catch to survey biomass ratios were low regardless of the source of information used to estimate catch and suggest an exploitation rate that should be well below sustainable levels. These analyses support the conclusion that fishing was not the cause of the decline in this population of American plaice.

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Publication information
Department/Agency Canada. Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Canada. Canadian Stock Assessment Secretariat.
Title The collapse of 2+3K American plaice : was it over fishing? / M.J. Morgan, W.B. Brodie, and D.W. Kulka.
Series title Canadian Stock Assessment Secretariat research document, 1480-4883 ; 2000/131
Publication type Series - View Master Record
Language [English]
Format Electronic
Electronic document
Note(s) Includes bibliographic references (p. 8-10).
Publishing information Ottawa : Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2000.
Author / Contributor Morgan, M. Joanne (Mary Joanne), 1961-
Kulka, David W.
Brodie, W. B.
Description 17 p. : fig., graphs, maps, tables.
Catalogue number
  • Fs70-1/2000-131E-PDF
Subject terms Fisheries resources
Salt water fish
Fishing area
Fisheries management
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