Proceedings of a meeting on subarea 4 witch stock structure

The paper was circulated during the course of the discussion. [...] The relatively few mature witch flounder caught during March, July and October surveys of the Scotian Shelf in 1978 to 1982 were mostly collected in the vicinity of Western, Sable Island and Banquereau banks, with the highest density caught off Banquereau in March. [...] The authors acknowledged the possibility, but preferred to use the paired trawl data due to the large effect of spatial variation in catch rates. [...] This would add another dimension of complexity to the management of the resource, comparable to that of the mixed 4TVn, resident 4Vn cod fishery. [...] The paper on the commercial fishery data suggest that there is a movement of witch as the authors suggest.