Groundfish Analysis Program

The Groundfish Analysis Program works to advance the understanding of the population status, trends, and productivity of west coast groundfish. The Program is made up of two teams: Assessment and Aging. The principal focus of the Program is the development of stock assessments, which provide information on a species’ status, population trends, and acceptable harvest levels. For species that have been declared overfished, rebuilding analyses are conducted, which project rebuilding times under a range of harvest rates. Following peer review, the stock assessments and rebuilding analyses are used by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and its advisors to form recommendations to NOAA Fisheries for the management of groundfish stocks.

Analysis Program members also conduct research on a wide range of topics. This research advances the state of knowledge about west coast groundfish, interactions between fisheries and other elements of the broader ecosystem, and the methods used to monitor and model groundfish populations.

The Analysis Program also supports a Cooperative Aging Project through the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. The Cooperative Aging Project ages 20,000 to 30,000 fish annually for use in stock assessments. Ages are determined by looking at fish ear bones, called otoliths, which accumulate annual layers that can be read similarly to tree rings.