Questions - Georges Bank Consultations 2000

Questions

Questions to Participants in the 2000 Georges Bank Groundfishery

The FRCC requests the following information as an important part of its information sources for determining stock status of the Georges Bank groundfish resources of cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder. Once compiled, this information is used to assist the FRCC in making recommendations to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans for the year 2000 fishery.

Instructions to participants: Please complete the following questions by checking off the appropriate box ( 4 ) in the tables below. Additional written comments are welcome. The questionnaire should take about 5 to 10 minutes to complete. Thank you in advance for your valuable input.

I. Stock Status

1. What is your view of the overall status in 2000 of groundfish stocks on Georges Bank?

	Fully recovered	Improving compared to 1999 but not fully recovered	Stable-unchanged from 1999	Declining compared to 1999	Stock in collapse
5Zjm Cod
5Zjm Haddock
5Zjmnh Yellowtail flounder

2. How did your own catch rates in 2000 compare with your catch rates of 1999?

	Highest ever	Better than 1999	Unchanged from 1999	Worse than 1999	Lowest ever	Did not fish stock
5Zjm Cod
5Zjm Haddock
5Zjmnh Yellowtail flounder

3. How available were fish in 2000 compared with fish availability in 1999?

	Easy to find	Easier to find than 1999	Unchanged from 1999	More difficult to find than 1999	Difficult to find	Did not fish stock
5Zjm Cod
5Zjm Haddock
5Zjmnh Yellowtail flounder

4. How did the timing of the fishery in 2000 compare with the timing of the fishery in 1999?

	Very early	Earlier than 1999	Unchanged from 1999	Later than 1999	Very late	Did not fish stock
5Zjm Cod
5Zjm Haddock
5Zjmnh Yellowtail flounder

5. What was the overall condition of fish (fat or skinny) in 2000 catches compared to fish condition in 1999?

	Excellent fish condition	Improved condition compared to 1999	Unchanged condition from 1999	Declining condition compared to 1999	Poor fish condition	Did not fish stock
5Zjm Cod
5Zjm Haddock
5Zjmnh Yellowtail flounder

II. Observations while Fishing in 2000

1. How would you evaluate the overall status of the Georges Bank ecosystem in 2000 (e.g., environmental conditions, water temperature, salinity, presence of other species, etc.) ?

	Highly positive	Better than in 1999	Unchanged from 1999	Deteriorated compared to 1999	Highly negative
Georges Bank ecosystem

Please state evidence from indicators you observed in support of your response:

_________________________________________________________________________________

2. Did the presence of predator species on groundfish have an impact on the fishery in 2000?

	High abundance of predators	Increased predators compared to 1999	Unchanged predators from 1999	Decreased evidence of predators compared to 1999	Relative absence of predators
Predator species

Please state evidence of predator abundance you observed in support of your response:

_________________________________________________________________________________

3. Did the presence of prey (forage) species (e.g., sandlance, herring, shrimp, etc.) for groundfish have an impact on the fishery in 2000?

	High abundance of prey	Increased prey compared to 1999	Unchanged prey from 1999	Decreased evidence of prey compared to 1999	Relative absence of prey
Prey species

Please state evidence of prey abundance you observed in support of your response:

_________________________________________________________________________________

4. How would you evaluate the size of the fish in catches by stock in 2000?

	Many more small fish	More small fish than usual	Similar in ages and size to past years	More big fish than usual	Many more older, big fish	Did not observe
5Zjm Cod
5Zjm Haddock
5Zjmnh Yellowtail flounder

5. Yellowtail flounder and skates share the same habitat. Do you feel that the presence of skates in the yellowtail fishery affects yellowtail catch rates and yellowtail spatial distribution?

	Affects a lot	affects somewhat	Uncertain	Affects a little	Does not affect at all
Presence of skates in the yellowtail fishery affects yellowtail catch rates
Presence of skates in the yellowtail fishery affects yellowtail spatial distribution

Suggestions to improve monitoring effectiveness:

_________________________________________________________________________________

6. Do you believe that increased use of management measures other than TACs, e.g., more area closures for protecting spawning fish, or more gear restrictions to reduce bycatch (e.g., separator trawls or hook size and type) would be effective in dealing with groundfish stock conservation and rebuilding on the Georges’ Bank?

Increased use of other management measures	Could be very effective	May be partly effective	Uncertain	Will likely be less than fully effective	Will not be at all effective
1. More Area closures
2. More Gear restrictions
3. Stricter Small fish protocol

III. Information Sources

1. In your view, do the following fishery information sources accurately reflect stock removals and provide the means for estimating stock status?

Information Source	Highly underestimates stock removals	Somewhat underestimates stock removals	Reflects removals accurately	Somewhat overestimates stock removals	Highly overestimates stock removals	No comment/ Don’t know
1. Port sampling
2. At-sea sampling
3. Sales slip data
4. Quota statistics

Suggestions to improve the reliability of fishery information:

_________________________________________________________________________________

2. In your view, do the following stock abundance surveys accurately reflect year-over-year changes in actual stock abundance?

Stock Surveys	Highly underestimates abundance	Somewhat underestimates abundance	Reflects abundance accurately	Somewhat overestimates abundance	Highly overestimates abundance	No comment/ Don’t know
1. Research vessels surveys, e.g., DFO
2. Joint Industry/DFO surveys
3. Sentinel surveys
4. Individual opinions of fishermen

Suggestions to improve the reliability of fishery information:

_________________________________________________________________________________

3. Do you feel you have had an adequate opportunity to express your views on stock status through the various meetings listed below?

Meetings	Strongly agree	Agree	Uncertain	Disagree	Strongly disagree	No comment
Scotia-Fundy RAP
2. Meetings with DFO Science staff
3. FRCC consultations

Suggestions to improve information exchange:

_________________________________________________________________________________

IV. Resource Outlook

For the Georges’ Bank groundfish stocks, the FRCC is currently working on developing a set of criteria for longer-term stock conservation and growth. These include: (1) recommending quotas below the F_0.1level; (2) setting stock specific spawning stock biomass targets; and (3) accepting low probabilities for year-over-over possible decline in the spawning stock biomass. In the future the FRCC will be consulting DFO and the fishing industry to develop longer-term plans for the Georges’ Bank groundfish stocks. We invite you to provide preliminary feedback on the planning process, and criteria for stock conservation and growth.

How important do you consider the following elements for effective longer-term planning for the Georges’ Bank groundfish stocks?

Planning elements	Very important	Somewhat important	Uncertain	Less important	Not at all important	No comment/ Don’t know
1. Multi-year TACs, e.g.,setting TACs for 3 to 5 years running
2. Biological objectives, e.g., absolute biomass limits and targets
3. Stock reference point values, e.g., F_0.1
4. Ecosystem considerations, e.g., predators, prey, habitat
5. Socioeconomic considerations, e.g., employment, income
6. Limits on year-to- year changes in TACs, e.g., no change greater than +20% or –20%
7. Other (please specify) __________________ __________________

Suggestions for effective longer-term planning:

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

V. Respondent’s Information

The following information is requested only to ensure data integrity and for data compilation purposes. This information will not be used in any way to identify the respondent and will remain confidential.

1. To what fleet/gear sector do you belong?

	FG less than 45’	FG 45’-65’	MG less than 65’	FG 65’-100’	MG 65’-100’	Vessels>100’
Fleet/Gear sector

2. Please state your home port and province.

	Place name	Province
Home port

3. What Georges Bank groundfish stocks did you fish in 2000? (Check all that apply.)

	5Zjm Cod	5Zjm Haddock	5Zjmnh Yellowtail flounder
Stocks fished

4. In what periods did you fish for Georges Bank groundfish in 2000? (Check all months that you fished.)

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

Fishing periods

4. How many years experience do you have fishing Georges Bank groundfish stocks?

	One year	2 to 5 years	5 to 7 years	7 to 10 years	More than 10 years
Years experience

Comments on questionnaire and suggestions for improving industry information collection:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Please send completed questionnaire to:

By fax: (613) 998-1146
By mail: P.O. Box 2001, Station D, Ottawa, ON K1P 5W3
By E-mail: [email protected]
By hand: FRCC Consultations, May 7,2020 in Pubnico