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Yellowtail rockfish benchmark: scientists say stock healthy but revised age-weighting and new indices lower catch limits
Summary
Lead assessor Kiva Oken told stakeholders the northern yellowtail rockfish stock is healthy (fraction unfished ~62% in 2025) but processing changes to commercial age samples and extended survey time series reduced OFLs compared with previous models.
Kiva Oken, lead assessor for the northern yellowtail rockfish benchmark, presented the 2025 assessment and fielded questions at a Pacific Fishery Management Council outreach session.
Oken said the assessment estimates fraction of unfished spawning output in 2025 at "around 62%," well above the Council's 40% management target, and age-4-plus biomass near 93,000 metric tons. She explained, however, that the OFLs produced by the current model are lower than in the 2017 model. The principal driver was a change in the way commercial age samples were processed: the…
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