National Workshop on Reference Points for Gadoids

Even if the relationship were the opposite, i.e the proper biomass limit for a low productivity regime was higher than in a high productivity regime, rebuilding from the lower reference point, once reached, would still be difficult and leave the stock in a state of impaired productivity for a number of years. [...] It was suggested that re-sampling either the stock-recruit data or the residuals from the fit to the data could get probability distributions for the parameters of the s-r curves. [...] The best estimate of the limit reference point for cod in the southern Gulf was a stock spawning biomass of 80,000 t. For cod in the northern Gulf, the conservation limit was estimated at 200,000 t. However it was recognized that there were few data on the recruitments expected in the 100,000-200,000 t range of SSB, because the stock passed very quickly through this range. [...] Therefore uncertainty in both the estimate of the resource state and the estimate of the reference point are pertinent. [...] The significant factors that impact on management actions and/or harvest control are: • the state and productivity of the stock • the relative capacity of the fleet • the economic structure of the fleet (e.g.