ABSTRACT

To compare the effects of fishing and entrainment, simulations were also conducted, which included age-specific estimates of fishing mortality. These were obtained by multiplying the assumed population rate of fishing mortality by an estimate of gear selectivity for each age and the fraction of fish of legal size in each age class. Specifically, the survival of each age class (Sa) was calculated as

where M and F are the natural and fishing mortality rates, g(a) is the age specific gear selectivity, and l(a) is the fraction of fish of legal size in each age class (Table 1). Under Amendment #5 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass, the interim target for fishing mortality is an F of 0.33 for the recovering stock and an F of 0.4 for the recovered stock. We used an F of 0.33 in combination with a CEMR of 11% to represent current conditions. For comparison with a management action recommended by Amendment #5, we used an F of 0.4 and a CEMR of 11%.