PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 2: Statistical Ecology and Ecological Modeling.
Monday, August 4 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
Red Porgy population status determination: Optimizing data during data-poor periods.
Davis, Michelle*,1, Berkson, Jim1, 1 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
ABSTRACT- The majority of marine stock assessments rely on some combination of fishery-dependent and fishery-independent data. However, when a moratorium is in effect, the flow of fishery-dependent data is interrupted. With the elimination of what is often the dominant data set, fishery-independent data may drive assessment efforts, potentially affecting the determination of key population parameters such as the intrinsic rate of increase, carrying capacity, and individual growth rates. Effective sampling strategies for fishery-independent data are essential, but seldom investigated. Off the coast of the southeastern United States, one fish of concern is red porgy (Pagrus pagrus, Family Sparidae), a protogynous reef fish important to both recreational and commercial fisheries. Stock assessments performed on this species since 1985 have shown a population in drastic decline, and, as a result, a number of management actions were put into place, including a moratorium in 1999. In order to determine the potential effects on our ability to estimate key population parameters, the most recent assessment model (a forward-projecting age-structured model) was modified to investigate a number of scenarios, including the loss of commercial and recreational data during a moratorium and increased fishery-independent sample sizes. The results of this work will provide a framework for determining key population status parameters when important data components are lacking.
Key words: modeling, population dynamics, Pagrus pagrus, marine