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Widow rockfish assessment splits scientists and industry; council delays final action
Summary
A revised 2025 widow rockfish update produced a much lower stock estimate and recommendations for steep ACL reductions; the SSC asked for an additional supplemental review because key stat authors and many SSC members were unavailable during the earlier supplemental review. Industry, GAP and GMT urged more review and offered alternative runs; the council adopted catch-only projections for other species but deferred a final decision on widow until further SSC/stat interaction.
A revised 2025 update to the widow rockfish assessment prompted sharp debate at the Pacific Fishery Management Council over model assumptions, data inputs and the appropriate management response.
The Scientific and Statistical Committee told the council the October 2025 model is an "improvement on previous models" but that the SSC could not yet endorse the model as the best scientific information available (BSIA) because many NOAA and stat members were unavailable during the supplemental review. "The SSC strongly recommends…
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