Fisheries of the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico; SEDAR; Public Meetings

Résumé

The Council-Federal cooperative SEDAR process provides stock assessments for fisheries resources of the Southeast Region. Assessment priorities are typically established by management need or perceptions of management or population problems, and often do not consider data availability. As a result, despite several attempts by SEDAR, no acceptable quantitative assessments have been developed for Caribbean stocks because data to support traditional stock assessment methods simply do not exist. It is clear that alternative methods need to be developed that will allow assessing Caribbean fisheries resources in a manner that will withstand independent peer review. Identifying and evaluating available data sources across all managed species is a strong first step that is consistent with peer review and assessment report recommendations. SEDAR will convene a workshop including representatives from Federal agencies, territorial governments, non-governmental organizations, Council technical and constituent advisors, and university researchers. Participants will catalog and evaluate basic data, address alternative assessment methods that will accommodate the available data, and recommend ass