Outcomes of the stock assessment for the Pacific saury – 2019 update with the BSSPM

Stock assessment for the North Pacific saury was conducted based on the specification (6 base cases and 6 sensitivity cases) agreed in the 3rd PSSA TWG meeting held in November 2018. The outcomes of stock status, diagnostics and future projection were shown according to the template agreed in the same meeting. The stock status was somewhat different between 2017 and 2018; the ranges of median B/K in 2017 and 2018 over the 6 base cases are 0.196-0.268 and 0.338-0.491, respectively. Such a huge difference was also observed in B-ratio (=B/Bmsy) and F-ratio (=F/Fmsy). We concluded in our 2018 stock assessment report that the population status was no longer healthy. However, the recent increase in the biomass estimated by the fishery-independent survey drove more optimistic stock status.