Marine Fisheries
Title:	The Northeast Regional Cod Tagging Program: how collaborative research can contribute to fisheries assessment and management
Author(s):	Shelly M.L. Tallack, Patricia Foote, Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Date:	Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Time:	8:25 am - 8:45 am
Room:	Lexington
Abstract: In the Gulf of Maine region, Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, are managed as three separate stocks: in US waters, the Gulf of Maine (5Y) and Georges Bank (5Z) stocks and in Canadian waters, the Bay of Fundy stock (4X). The Northeast Regional Cod Tagging Program (NRCTP), a large-scale, international collaborative tagging program, was initiated in 2003 and provides the first region-wide, international snapshot of cod movements, mixing and growth across all three management areas. With such an expansive dataset, the NRCTP enabled us to explore how mark-recapture data can play a role in the complex process of stock identification and assessment. The NRCTP data (114,473 tag releases and >6,500 recaptures) were analyzed and considered during the 2008 Groundfish Assessment Review Meeting (GARM) and during the 2009 Transboundary Assessment Committee (TRAC) workshop. It is hoped that for future cod stock assessments, the models will be expanded upon to enable a more cohesive incorporation of mark-recapture data into the assessment process. Supplemental, regional growth estimates are also available from the NRCTP data which provides growth information for ~4,500 individual fish. Spatial variation in growth rates is seen both within and between stock management areas, with estimates for 5Z/Georges Bank cod indicating faster growth than for cod in 5Y/Gulf of Maine. Limited information on spawning cod and movements relative to closed areas is also available, despite this not being a primary objective of the study. Overall, these NRCTP data provide supplemental biological and behavioral information of relevance to both stock assessments and management efforts. The geographic scale and quality of the NRCTP data reiterate the value of undertaking international, industry-science collaborative research initiatives. With the NRCTP now in its wrap-up stage, a workshop was held to review the findings of cod tagging studies in the GOM region and to prioritize future cod-related research needs. Based on the migration patterns observed in the NRCTP data and other regional cod studies, the workshop group recommended that the primary research need is to review and re-assess the management boundaries applied to Atlantic cod in the GOM region.
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