The 62nd SAW Assessment Summary Report contains summary and detailed technical information on two stock assessments reviewed during November 29 – December 2, 2016 at the Stock Assessment Workshop (SAW) by the 62nd Stock Assessment Review Committee (SARC- 62): Black sea bass and Witch flounder. The SARC-62 consisted of three external, independent reviewers appointed by the Center for Independent Experts [CIE], and an external SARC chairman from the NEFMC SSC. The SARC evaluated whether each...

NOAA's Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP) is compiling a national database of the locations of deep-sea corals and sponges, beginning in U.S. waters. The DSCRTP will make this information accessible to resource managers, the scientific community, and the public over the World Wide Web. The database fulfills NOAA's requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) to identify and map locations of deep-sea corals and to submit this information for...

This report summarizes the reef fish survey data and a subset of the benthic data collected by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Program for Pacific RAMP and for compatible PMNM, NMFS and CRCP survey missions in 2016. During 2016, surveys were conducted in the following regions: main Hawaiian Islands, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Remote Island Areas, and American Samoa. The status of reef fish assemblages in each region is first described in the wider Pacific context...

Marine mammal, sea turtle, and seabird bycatch was estimated for the California swordfish drift gillnet fishery during a 26-year period (1990-2015), using random forest regression trees. Tree estimates were compared with traditional annual ratio estimates generated from the same observer data. Ratio estimates suffer from systematic bias (under- and overestimation of bycatch) when observed bycatch is rare, bycatch rates are inferred only from same-year data, and observer coverage is low. Model-based approaches result in more...

This assessment is for Atlantic surfclam in the US EEZ (federal waters, 3-200 nm from shore) individual transferable quota (ITQ) fishery (Appendix 7). The assessment divides the US stock into a northern (Georges Bank or GBK) and a southern area (south of GBK to Cape Hatteras) for modeling purposes (Figures 6 and 7). However, the resource is managed as a single stock so estimates for the north and south are combined for status determination.