Gulf Council
to Convene a Meeting of its Standing and Special Reef Fish Scientific and Statistical Committees (SSC)
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has scheduled a meeting of its Standing and Special Reef Fish SSCs Tuesday, January 5 and Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at the Hilton Westshore Airport Hotel in Tampa, Florida. The meeting will begin at 9:00 am Tuesday and will conclude at approximately 2:00 pm Wednesday.
During the meeting, the Standing and Special Reef Fish SSC will review the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) assessment prioritization process and discuss the concept of best scientific information available.
The Committee will also:
- Receive an update on SEDAR 43 Gray Triggerfish Projections and make recommendations for a new rebuilding plan
- Discuss constant catch versus a constant fishing mortality rate approach to setting catch limits
- Receive projections from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute on constant catch overfishing limits (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) for west Florida shelf stock of hogfish
- Review the SEDAR 42 Red Grouper Benchmark Assessment and possibly recommend OFL and ABC for red grouper
- Review an options paper for a possible framework action to adjust recreational red snapper annual catch target (ACT) buffer
- Receive a presentation from the NMFS Southeast Regional Office on methods for setting season length, and review methods for assigning probability of exceeding the ACL at a given ACT buffer
- Receive a presentation from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment and Management Strategy Evaluation
- Review Draft Amendment 44 regarding the setting of minimum stock size thresholds (MSST) and maximum sustainable yield (MSY) proxies
- Review proposed revisions to the SEDAR process
Finally, the SSC will review and approve the terms of reference and project schedule for SEDAR 49 - Gulf of Mexico Data-limited Species.
