Arlington, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold the Black Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment Workshop at the Westin Crystal City, 1800 Richmond Highway, Arlington, VA. The stock assessment will evaluate the health of the black drum stock and inform management of this species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data*, when the public will be asked to leave the room.
The July Stock Assessment Workshop will focus on evaluation of models developed to estimate stock status. Specifically, the stock assessment terms of reference below will be addressed by the Black Drum Stock Assessment Subcommittee. The next and final workshop for this stock assessment will be the Peer Review Workshop in December 2022 where a Peer Review Panel of independent fisheries scientists will review the assessment for its appropriateness to advise future management of black drum.
Relevant Black Drum Stock Assessment Terms of Reference:
- Identify and develop simple, empirical indicators of stock abundance, stock characteristics, and fishery characteristics that can be monitored annually between stock assessments.
- Develop models used to estimate population parameters (e.g., fishing mortality, biomass, abundance) and biological reference points, and analyze model performance.
- State assumptions made for all models and explain the likely effects of assumption violations on synthesis of input data and model outputs.
- Characterize uncertainty of model estimates and biological or empirical reference points.
- Perform retrospective analyses, assess magnitude and direction of retrospective patterns detected, and discuss implications of any observed retrospective pattern for uncertainty in population parameters (e.g., fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass), reference points, and/or management measures.
- Recommend stock status as related to reference points.
- Develop detailed short and long-term prioritized lists of recommendations for future research, data collection, and assessment methodology. Highlight improvements to be made by next benchmark review.
The draft agenda for the Workshop can be found here. For more information about the assessment or attending the upcoming workshop (space will be limited), please contact Tracey Bauer, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at tbauer@asmfc.org or 703.842.0723.