Stock assessment of the English Channel stock of cuttlefish with a two-stage biomass model

Other titles Evaluation du stock de seiche de Manche avec un modèle de biomasse à deux stades
Type Expertise
Date 2016
Language English
Ref. ICES CM 2015/SSGEPD:02 pp.84-98
Other localization http://www.ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Expert%20Group%20Report/SSGEPD/2015/01%20WGCEPH%20-%20Report%20of%20the%20Working%20Group%20on%20Cephalopod%20Fisheries%20and%20Life%20History.pdf
Author(s) Alemany JulietteORCID1, Foucher EricORCID1, Rivot Etienne2, Vigneau JoelORCID1, Robin Jean-Paul3
Affiliation(s) 1 : Ifremer, Port-en-Bessin, France
2 : Agrocampus Ouest, UMR 985 ESE Ecologie et santé des écosystèmes, Rennes, France
3 : Research Unit BOREA «Biology of Aquatic Organisms and Ecosystems» University of Caen (Normandy), France
Sponsor ICES Working Group on Cephalopod Fisheries and Life History (WGCEPH)
Publisher ICES
Note IN : ICES. 2016. Interim Report of the Working Group on Cephalopod Fisheries and Life History (WGCEPH), 8–11 June 2015, Tenerife, Spain. ICES CM 2015/SSGEPD:02. pp.84-98
Keyword(s) stock assessment, short-lived species, data-limited, cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, English Channel, two-stage biomass model, Bayesian methods
Abstract Among the English Channel fishery, the importance of cuttlefish stock has increased, following the cephalopods global landings and market trend. The stock is currently managed at regional scale but not by European regulations, although it is a shared species targeted by French and British fishing fleets at several stages of its life-cycle and across much of its distributional range. An assessment of this stock was conducted in June 2014 by fitting a two-stage biomass model on a 22 years’ time-series (1992-2013). We present the last update of cuttlefish stock assessment using the same model on years 1992-2014. As the outputs of the model are sensitive to a fix growth parameter, we explore possibilities to improve the model.
The use of a Bayesian framework is particularly adapted for decision making, allowing the propagation of uncertainty in the model and the use of prior knowledge on some parameter distributions. Therefore, we implemented the two-stage biomass model into a Bayesian framework and compared the results with the outputs of the initial fit. We found similar trends of biomass estimates for both models. The Bayesian model outputs showed a smaller range of variation than the initial fit. These results are only a first step toward an improvement of the two-stage biomass model currently used for cuttlefish stock assessment in the English Channel. The Bayesian model could indeed be improved and particular attention should be paid to the growth parameter g because of the high sensitivity of model outputs to its value. We discuss future directions of this work.
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Alemany Juliette, Foucher Eric, Rivot Etienne, Vigneau Joel, Robin Jean-Paul (2016). Stock assessment of the English Channel stock of cuttlefish with a two-stage biomass model. ICES Working Group on Cephalopod Fisheries and Life History (WGCEPH), Ref. ICES CM 2015/SSGEPD:02 pp.84-98, 16p.https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00377/48774/