Document Type

Report

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

9-1999

Abstract

Measures of juvenile abundance are presently in wide use as a key element in the management of the Atlantic States' coastal fishery resources. Estimates of the relative interannual abundance of early juveniles (age-0) generated from scientific (fishery-independent) survey programs have been found to provide a reliable and early estimator of future year class strength (Goodyear 1985, Lipcius and Van Engel 1990). After a review of previously available indices of juvenile abundance for important fishery resource species in the Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC), a federal/state committee sponsored and funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), recommended that II a unified, consistent trawl program should be one of the primary monitoring tools for finfish and crab stock assessment. 11 (Chesapeake Bay Program Stock Assessment Plan, Chesapeake Executive Council 1988). In order to facilitate the implementation of such a program, CBSAC directly supported pilot studies directed at developing a comprehensive trawl survey for Chesapeake Bay. In the Virginia portion of the bay the primary focus of this support was the initiation in 1988 of a monthly trawl survey of the main stem portion of the lower Bay. This survey served to compliment and greatly expand the monthly trawl surveys of the major Virginia tributaries (James, York and Rappahannock rivers) which have been conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) as part of a long-term effort to monitor and assess the condition of fishery stocks in the lower Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The primary intent of the present project is to assure that this sampling effort be continued on a long-term basis as well.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25773/8sm8-ap06

Keywords

Fish populations -- Virginia, Fishery resources -- Virginia

Publication Statement

Submitted to Virginia Marine Resources Commission and United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.