Yellowtail Surveys May be in for Major Changes
by Steve Urbon of the New Bedford Standard-Times
A top NOAA fisheries scientist has proposed a dramatic change in the way the agency makes its stock assessments for yellowtail flounder.
Yellowtail assessments in recent years have been dire, prompting sharp quota cutbacks that interfere with fishing for more plentiful species of groundfish.
The proposal by Dr. William Karp, director of the Northeast Regional Science Center, embraces the view of Dr. Brian Rothschild, professor emeritus at UMass Dartmouth. It reduces the reliance on statistical models that have proven unreliable and inadequate, instead calling on NOAA to employ additional data and information that it previously wouldn’t consider. . .
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This article originally appeared in the New Bedford Standard-Times on January 18, 2014.
