Assessment of golden redfish (Sebastes marinus L) in Icelandic waters

Abstract

Assessment of redfish has traditionally suffered from the inability to age the fish. For golden redfish in Icelandic waters, length distributions and abundance indices are available both from commercial catch and from surveys, particularly a groundfish survey in March. This paper addresses the use of an age- and length-based cohort model for the assessment of redfish, where all selection curves depend on the length of the fish and information on age is not a prerequisite but can be utilised if available. In the last few years it appears that ageing of this species has been successful and in this paper we compare assessment results of a model that incorporates age information with those that do not. Finally, we calculate yield per recruit, Fmax and F0.1 for the stock. Stock size, catch and fishing mortality are then simulated 10 years ahead using different catch control laws.