Peer Review Plans

Title and Description:
Shortbelly Rockfish Stock Assessment
The shortbelly rockfish, Sebastes jordani, is one of the most abundant rockfish species in the California Current, and is a key forage species for many piscivorous fish, birds, and marine mammals. This species has not been the target of commercial fisheries, and consequently catch data are limited. Nevertheless, available evidence suggests that the population has undergone significant fluctuations in abundance over the last several decades, presumably in response to variations in environmental conditions. We present a population model, using standard stock assessment methods and a variety of survey and food habits data to investigate population changes for this ecologically important species. Results suggest that the biomass of this population has varied substantially over the last fifty years, and is now at less than half of the historical abundance. As this stock can be considered the equivalent of a "control" rockfish population, devoid of the impacts of fishing, the results can provide insight into the potential causes and consequences of natural population variability on both exploited and non-exploited rockfish populations throughout the California Current.

ID:  62 Info. Type:  ISI
Estimated Dissemination Date:  7/31/2006
Contact Person: Rebecca Rootes  NOAA Locator

Date First Posted in Peer Review Agenda:  6/16/2006

Estimated Peer Review Start Date:  6/26/2006
Review type:  panel
Expected number of peer reviewers:  3 or fewer
Peer reviewers will be selected by:  the agency

Will the public, including scientific or professional societies, be asked to nominate potential peer reviewers?  no

Will there be opportunities for the public to comment on the work product to be peer reviewed?  no

How?  NA

When?  NA

Will the agency provide significant and relevant publiccomments to the peer reviewers before they conduct their review?  no

Primary disciplines or expertise needed in the review:  Marine fish stock assessment. Description: Experienced fish stock assessment/modeler familiar with length-based maximum likelihood models (ADMB, Stock Synthesis 2)

Comments on Peer Review:
This information product was released in April 2007 as NOAA Technical Memorandum, NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-405, entitled Stock Assessment Model for the Shortbelly Rockfish, Sebastes Jordani, in the California Current. The comments of the peer reviewers and the peer review charge are appended to the NOAA Technical Memorandum, available at: http://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=FED&id=6744

The charge statement to the peer reviewers is at pgs. 99-102.

The comments of the peer reviewers can be found at pgs. 87-107.

There was no formal agency response to the review, as is consistent with other West Coast Groundfish CIE reviews. The review was well-received by all parties.