Tag Archives: inaccurate stock assessments
Poor counting plagues New England fisheries – Federal scientists acknowledge problems but make excuses
“I think it’s irresponsible to shut down fisheries based on such inaccurate stock assessments,” said Steve Cadrin, a former federal stock assessment scientist and a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
Federal scientists acknowledge errors in assessments of critical New England fish stocks and say they’re working hard to fix them. But they add that their overall methods are proven sound. continued@morningsentinal
Which is Bull Bleep! Read this article.
Because New England has one of the longest-running fishery databases in the world, computer modeling had a good track record of predicting future species populations. Federal fisheries law is built on those predictions, and is based on limiting catches when fish stocks decline below a specific population size.
But that model assumes that the ocean environment is relatively stable and that the amount fishermen catch is the biggest variable that must be brought under control. It worked well enough until the ocean began showing signs it was changing, said Steve Cadrin, an associate professor at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology and a former NMFS fisheries scientist.
