Protect and Restore Fisheries: Monitoring in Support of EAM

1. Protect and Restore Fisheries: Monitoring in Support of EAM Steve Giordano NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office MASC Workshop November 13, 2008

2. Chesapeake 2000 Goals Overall Logic Framework Preamble Living Resource Protection & Restoration Goal Vital Habitat Protection & Restoration Goal Water Quality Protection & Restoration Goal Sound Land Use Stewardship & Community Engagement A shared vision — a system with abundant, diverse populations of living resources, fed by healthy streams and rivers, sustaining strong local and regional economies, and our unique quality of life. Restore, enhance and protect the finfish, shellfish and other living resources, their habitats and ecological relationships to sustain all fisheries and provide for a balanced ecosystem. Preserve, protect and restore those habitats and natural areas that are vital to the survival and diversity of the living resources of the Bay and its rivers. Achieve and maintain the water quality necessary to support the aquatic living resources of the Bay and its tributariesand to protect human health. Develop, promote and achieve sound land use practices which protect and restore water-shed resources and water qual-ity, maintain reduced pollu-tant loadings for the Bay and its tributaries, and restore and pre-serve aquatic living resources. Promote individ-ual stewardship and assist individ-uals, community-based organiza-tions, businesses, local govern-ments and schools to under-take initiatives to achieve the goals and commitments of this agreement. Living resource goal is driving element of vision Vital habitat supports living resource goal Water quality supports living resource goal & human health Sound land use supports water quality, habitat & living resource goals Stewardship & engagement supports other 4 goals General flow of effect This logic framework sets the context in which strategies for implementing all pillar keystones must be set.

3. Fisheries Management in Chesapeake Bay 25-30 Managed Species • Some managed by states (MDNR, VMRC, PRFC) individually. • Some managed by bi-state FMPs • Most managed under ACFCMA (ASMFC) or • Magnusen-Stevens (MAFMC, NEFMC, SAFMC) For ASMFC and ‘Council’ species, appropriate targets, and thresholds are determined by multi-state or federal committees.

4. GOAL • Protect, restore, and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management. • EXPECTED LONG-TERM OUTCOMES • Healthy and productive coastal and marine ecosystems that benefit society • A well-informed public that acts as a steward of coastal and marine ecosystems Ecosystem Approach to Management • PAST APPROACH • Individual species • Small spatial scale • Short-term perspective • Humans: independent of ecosystem • Independent coastal & ocean resource management • Management not integrated with science • FUTURE APPROACH • Ecosystems • Multiple scales • Long-term perspective • Humans: integral part of ecosystem • Integrated coastal & ocean resource management • Management integrated with science – adaptive management

5. Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management Current Management Process Future Management Process Striped Bass Striped Bass Menhaden Menhaden Weakfish Weakfish Bluefish Bluefish Spot/Croaker Bay Anchovy Plankton

6. EBFM Pillar Strategy Goals • Address C2K Commitments while Implementing Sustainable Ecosystem-based Planning Process (= implementation of FEP for CB) • Build the necessary ‘Infrastructure’ to implement EAM in CB • Monitoring • Modeling • Assessment • Management Policy Development • Decision-Support Tool Development • Adaptive Management

7. Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management Fisheries Ecosystem Plan (FEP) • Guidance for Ecosystem Approach to Managing Fisheries and Related Resources • Recommendations • Ecosystem-based Approaches to Management • Required Research and Monitoring • Fisheries Mgt. Planning and Coordination Workgroup Guidance • Strategy for Incremental Implementation of Ecosystem-based Management • Ecosystem-based Fishery Management Plans • Endorsed by the Chesapeake Bay Executive Committee

8. Overarching EBFM Strategy: FEP Implementation Outcome 4: Adaptive Management Cycle

9. Monitoring Needs/Recommendations - FEP • Develop a comprehensive suite of integrated, broad-scale, fishery-independent and fishery-dependent surveys • Translate single species monitoring into a multispecies context (e.g., food habit data) • Estimate parameters for specific single and multispecies assessment models • Implement a trip ticket system for commercial catch estimation • Develop recreational monitoring programs • Design and implement an onboard fisheries observer program • Develop and implement a truly integrated online fisheries data management system

10. Monitoring Needs/Recommendations - STAC • Monitor and assess fish stock status and trends in abundance and spatial distribution of target and forage species • Perform multispecies and trophic analyses to characterize food web interactions – particularly predator-prey and lower trophic levels such as producer-consumer • Increase understanding of habitat in relation to spatial distributions and abundance of fish species

11. Management Data and Information Needs • Life History data • Growth rates • Age at maturity/maturity schedule • Fecundity • Natural mortality • Partial recruitment schedule • Longevity • Abundance data • Absolute total abundance • Relative abundance indices for exploited portions of the stock • Catch per unit effort • Exploitation data • Fishing mortality rates derived from catch-curve analyses • Exploitation fraction from catch-survey (Collie-Sissenwine)

12. Management Data and Information Needs • Other stock assessment metrics • Stock age/size structure • Sex ratios • Migration patterns • Annual recruitment indices • Other minimum data requirements • Life history and reproductive characteristics • Annual indices and trends of juvenile recruitment • Annual indices and trends of age-1 and older fish • Annual estimates and trends in stock age composition • Extended/Multispecies/Habitat data requirements • Critical habitat • Spatial and temporal distribution • Stock identification • Age-specific natural mortality rates • Trophic interactions

13. Existing Monitoring Surveys - Maryland ‘Chesapeake Finfish Program’ Surveys – MDNR

14. Existing Monitoring Surveys – MD (cont.) CHESFIMS (Chesapeake Bay Fisheries Independent Monitoring Survey) • University of Maryland Chesapeake Biological Laboratory • Targets juvenile benthopelagic fishes • Multispecies survey • Chesapeake Bay mainstem • Mid-water trawl • In operation for more than five years

17. Figure 4. The control rule used to manage the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery. An abundance of 86 million age 1+ crabs represents the overfished threshold. In 2007, abundance was above the overfished threshold and the exploitation rate was above the overfishing threshold. 1999 Overfishing Harvest Rate too High 2004 2001 2000 2002 2007 2006 2003 2005 Overfished Abundance too Low

18. Figure 7. The relationship between the total abundance of crabs measured in the Bay-wide winter dredge survey (WDS), and the subsequent year’s harvest in pounds. Based on this relationship, the 2007 harvest is predicted to be 48.7 million pounds with a possible range of 32.3 to 65.1 million pounds. The lowest total abundance of crabs was observed in 2001. The highest abundance and the largest harvest during this time period was recorded in 1993. 95% Prediction intervals for harvest Predicted annual harvest Observed annual harvest Observed 2007 harvest (43.5 million lbs) Predicted 2008 harvest (49 million lbs)

19. Existing Monitoring Surveys - Virginia

20. Existing Monitoring Surveys – Virginia ChesMMAP/Multispecies (Chesapeake Bay Multispecies Monitoring and Assessment Program) • Virginia Institute of Marine Science • Targets benthopelagic fishes • Multispecies survey • Chesapeake Bay mainstem • Bottom trawl • In operation since 2002

21. Chesapeake Fish Stock Monitoring Workshop • Convened in Spring 2006 by fisheries, managers, academics, CRC, and NOAA • More than 50 years of fish stock monitoring in CB • Historically little cross-jurisdictional or cross-program coordination • Multispecies and ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management requires coordinated comprehensive data sets • Require an inter-jurisdictional monitoring infrastructure Workshop Goal: to reach a consensus on how to proceed with planning and development of “a fishery-independent monitoring plan which, if implemented, will provide scientists and managers with Bay-wide data required (now and into the future) to assess and manage fish stocks in the Chesapeake region.”

22. Chesapeake Fish Stock Monitoring Workshop Objective: To begin development of a coordinated bay-wide fisheries-independent monitoring program which: • Will be the basis for developing Chesapeake Bay-wide stock assessments (including multispecies and spatially explicit assessments) 2. Can support coast-wide interstate assessments • Will provide managers with data to make informed management decisions • Fisheries resources • Non-fisheries resources

23. Chesapeake Fish Stock Monitoring Workshop Consensus Recommendations: • General Surveys – Multispecies, Multihabitat Fishery-independent Surveys are needed for effective • Single species assessment & management • Multispecies assessment & management • Ecosystem-based fisheries management • Coordinated, Cross-boundary fish monitoring surveys in the Mainstem and the tributaries • Deep (> 20 ft.) • Shallow (~ 8 – 20 ft.) • Littoral (< 8 ft. including better shoreline habitat coverage) • Special Surveys of key species not accessible to standard survey gears • Include mandated surveys (ASMFC)

24. Chesapeake Fish Stock Monitoring Workshop Consensus Recommendations (cont.): • Coordinating Committee of regional scientists and managers to provide oversight and to advise on • Data required • Data quality • Adequacy of survey design • Administration and Survey Management to assure that surveys are dependably administered, coordinated, funded, and conducted • Survey design and standards • Personnel training • Gear acquisition, certification, and maintenance • Sample processing guidelines • Data management & distribution • Jurisdictional coordination • Public outreach and finance

25. Lessons Learned from Programs Outside the Bay • Fishery-independent monitoring should always be coordinated with resource managers and assessment scientists • Successful programs consistently produce timely and relevant information and decision support tools to managers • Generally, collect as much information (collateral) as possible from surveys • A solid comprehensive survey provides the basis for cooperative supplemental research and analyses, enhancing the value of the survey and its data products

26. What is needed to achieve the vision? • A comprehensive Bay-wide ecosystem approach to monitoring and management • Collaborate among NOAA, other federal partners, Watershed and Bay resource management agencies, and academia to collect and analyze data • Refine and better coordinate current fisheries monitoring programs • Integrate monitoring of fisheries and other ecosystem elements (e.g., WQ, habitat, water column/benthic production and community structure, hydrodynamic regime) • Better coordinate future investments to achieve science recommendations

27. Analytical Products to Support Management Objectives

28. Applied Ecosystem Assessment: HCMPCB Pilot IEA surveys – Rhode River SSS and other acoustic classification and mapping methods provide base data layers for biogeographic information system Once groundtruthed, benthic cover and structure classifications were used to inform stratified living resource monitoring based on habitat characteristics

29. Habitat Assessment/Fisheries Utilization • Stratified random trawl sampling to determine the abundance and diversity of demersal fish communities within and among habitat types mapped by the HCMP • Randomly selected sites were stratified by habitat and distance from the river mouth • seasonal and diurnal temporal components are included • Developing models of habitat affinity and available suitable habitat • 35 day trawls and 33 night trawls completed during the summer of 2008.

30. Habitat Assessment/Fisheries Utilization • Stratified random seine sampling to determine the abundance and diversity of demersal and pelagic fish communities within and among shoreline habitat types mapped by the HCMP • Randomly selected sites were stratified by habitat and distance from the river mouth • seasonal and diurnal temporal components are included • Developing models of habitat affinity and available suitable habitat • 30 day and 15 night seines completed during the summer of 2008 • Bonus study of hardened v. natural shoreline

31. For more information… http://noaa.chesapeakebay.net Steve Giordano NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office 410 Severn Ave, Suite 107 Annapolis, MD 21403 Tel: 410.267.5647 Fax: 410.267.5666 steve.giordano@noaa.gov