Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

2007

Journal

Ices Journal Of Marine Science

Volume

64

Issue

9

First Page

1760

Last Page

1771

Abstract

Depletion methods are widely used to estimate capture efficiency and abundance. However, they are highly dependent on the depletion area assumed. In open-ocean depletion studies, it is difficult to determine the true area of depletion. Satellite vessel monitoring systems (VMS) offer the potential to determine the area effectively fished. Observer-collected catch-and-effort data from the 1999 Atlantic sea scallop fishery in Georges Bank Closed Area II were used to obtain spatially-explicit DeLury depletion estimates of dredge efficiency and abundance, with corrections for fished area made using VMS data. Non-area-corrected efficiency estimates often had theoretically impossible values, indicating that the naively assumed fished area was likely too big. Fine-scale spatial analyses on individual depletion cells confirmed this result. Corrected-area efficiency estimates exhibited reduced variability and more plausible efficiencies, with 70% of 289 individual depletion estimates failing between 20% and 55%, with a mean of 46%. Abundance estimates from individual depletion studies matched maps of abundance from a preseason survey. Results indicated a total abundance of similar to 17 million pounds of scallop meat weight in the fished area, of which 6 million pounds were landed, providing an overall exploitation rate of 35%.

DOI

10.1093/icesjms/fsm147

Keywords

Scallop Placopecten-Magellanicus; Georges Bank; Sea Scallops; Movement

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