SSC Report to CFMC

SSC Report to CFMC 149thCFMC Meeting held April 22-23, 2014 SSC Meeting held March 25-27, 2014

Criteria for Species Inclusion in Island-based Fishery Management Plans • National Standards • Draft Criteria • Test Species Review • Trial Application of Criteria • Development of Thresholds

National Standards • NS 1 requires a description of the species involved in the fishery • Target stocks • Non-target stocks • Ecosystem component species

National Standards • NS 3 – a stock shall be managed as a unit throughout its range. • Choice of a management unit may be organized around biological, geographic, economic, technical, social, or ecological perspectives.

National Standards • NS 7 - management measures shall minimize costs and avoid unnecessary duplication • Factors to be considered for inclusion within an FMP: • Importance of the fishery • Biological condition of the stock • Management by other programs • Competing interests and conflicts • Economic condition of a fishery • Needs of a developing fishery • Costs balanced against the benefits

Suggested draft criteria • Biology • Habitat • Range • Economic importance • Target species • By-catch • Landings • Data availability • Ecological Value • Method of harvest/gear • Cultural considerations • Protected resources • Indicator Status • Market Demand

Draft Criteria • Biology – defined as question of vulnerability/productivity. Is species particularly at risk? • Habitat Specificity– defined as a question of vulnerability due to particular dependence on limited or vulnerable habitat during some life stage • Range – defined as whether species is either 1) effectively limited to local waters, 2) limited to EEZ, 3) spans both, or 4) is a HMS • Economic Importance– defined as total economic value, not just ex-vessel price. This would include, for example, nonconsumptive use, recreational value, targeted species, “filler” species and socio-cultural importance

Draft Criteria • Target species vs Bycatch • Landings – to be used first to establish lower and upper thresholds for automatic rejection from or inclusion in an FMP, respectively. • Ecological Value– defined as having a unique or large ecological function relative to habitat (esp. coral reefs), or trophic/community structure, e.g., keystone species, apex predator, key forage species such that management is needed to sustain that function. • Protected/Management Status– defined as whether the species is fully protected or partially protected within an existing management framework within EEZ or local waters

Test Species and Data • Selected species • spiny lobster, dolphinfish, ballyhoo, octopus, mackerel and mullet • Available data • Puerto Rico Commercial 1988 – 2012 • Puerto Rico Recreational 2000 – 2013 • St. Thomas/St. John 2000 – 2012 • St. Croix 1999 – 2012 • The SSC recommends that that the 2005 east coast correction factor be re-examined by the PR DNER with the assistance of the SEFSC.

Most criteria were weighted as high (more likely to be included an FMU, medium or low (less likely to be included as a FMU)

The SSC did not assess the following: • Weightings among the various criteria • How they would be combined (for example - mean, median) for an overall score • How that score would be interpreted (scaled) for species inclusion on not

Dichotomous decision tree for automatic inclusion/exclusion of stocks based on thresholds

Thresholds • Actual Thresholds were not developed • Use of thresholds did not take into consideration the possibility of some species with low landings being considered as potential “Ecosystem Component Species”. • The SSC requests that the SEFSC develop graphs of species landings (lbs and $) that could be used to see if obvious threshold break points can be identified

ACL Control Rules • Discussion motivated by scalers used for setting the Management Buffer when determining ACLs: (1) 0.90 for normal species, (2) 0.85 = for species undergoing overfishing, and what to do when a species is determined it is no longer undergoing overfishing • Process for overfished stocks conducted before the ORCS process developed

ACL Control Rules • The SSC requests guidance on role of SSC for setting the ABCs • Recommends that, given the 5-year experience working with ACLs within the US Caribbean and elsewhere in the nation concerning data-poor stocks, the process of setting ACLs be revisited from start to finish prior to developing island-specific plans • Until then, the SSC recommends the CFMC keep using the current control rule under the rationale from which it was developed.

Abrir la Sierra, Bajo de Sico, Tourmaline (ABT) Closures The SSC recommends that it be allowed to review the scientific information relative to the ABT Closures prior to a final decision by the CFMC

SSC Report to CFMC