Council reviews SSC's groundfish assessment guidance; fishermen press for independent Petrale sole review and more local data

The Pacific Fishery Management Council on Saturday reviewed and agreed to move forward with the Scientific and Statistical Committee's accepted practices guidelines for 2025'26 groundfish stock assessments, while public commenters urged independent review of the petrale (petrale) sole assessment and better incorporation of local sampling and recreational tagging data.

The council's accepted-practices briefing, presented by Marlene Bellman, described the document as a supplement to the council's terms of reference for groundfish stock assessment review. Bellman said the guidelines provide default approaches assessment teams should consider and that teams may diverge from the guidelines if they document reasons before review panels. "This document is intended to supplement the council's terms of reference for the groundfish stock assessment review process and provide groundfish stock assessment teams with default approaches to consider when dealing with certain stock assessment data and modeling…