Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents
Changing distribution and abundance of small pelagic fishes may drive changes in predator distributions, affecting predator availability to fisheries and surveys. However, small pelagics are difficult to survey directly, so we developed a novel method of assessing the aggregate abundance of 21 small...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Canadian Science Publishing
2024
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 |
id |
crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 2024-09-15T18:23:21+00:00 Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents Gaichas, Sarah K. Gartland, James Smith, Brian E. Wood, Anthony D. Ng, Elizabeth L. Celestino, Michael Drew, Katie Tyrell, Abigail S. Thorson, James T. 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 en eng Canadian Science Publishing https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_GB Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences volume 81, issue 8, page 990-1012 ISSN 0706-652X 1205-7533 journal-article 2024 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 2024-08-29T04:08:50Z Changing distribution and abundance of small pelagic fishes may drive changes in predator distributions, affecting predator availability to fisheries and surveys. However, small pelagics are difficult to survey directly, so we developed a novel method of assessing the aggregate abundance of 21 small pelagic forage taxa via predator stomach contents. We used stomach contents collected from 22 piscivore species captured by multiple bottom trawl surveys within a vector autoregressive spatio-temporal model to assess trends of small pelagics on the Northeast US shelf. The goal was to develop a spatial “forage index” to inform survey and (or) fishery availability in the western North Atlantic bluefish ( Pomatomus saltatrix) stock assessment. This spatially resolved index compared favorably with more traditional design-based survey biomass indices for forage species well sampled by surveys. However, our stomach content-based index better represented smaller unmanaged forage species that surveys are not designed to capture. The stomach-based forage index helped explain bluefish availability to the recreational fishery for stock assessment and provided insight into pelagic forage trends throughout the regional ecosystem. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
Changing distribution and abundance of small pelagic fishes may drive changes in predator distributions, affecting predator availability to fisheries and surveys. However, small pelagics are difficult to survey directly, so we developed a novel method of assessing the aggregate abundance of 21 small pelagic forage taxa via predator stomach contents. We used stomach contents collected from 22 piscivore species captured by multiple bottom trawl surveys within a vector autoregressive spatio-temporal model to assess trends of small pelagics on the Northeast US shelf. The goal was to develop a spatial “forage index” to inform survey and (or) fishery availability in the western North Atlantic bluefish ( Pomatomus saltatrix) stock assessment. This spatially resolved index compared favorably with more traditional design-based survey biomass indices for forage species well sampled by surveys. However, our stomach content-based index better represented smaller unmanaged forage species that surveys are not designed to capture. The stomach-based forage index helped explain bluefish availability to the recreational fishery for stock assessment and provided insight into pelagic forage trends throughout the regional ecosystem. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gaichas, Sarah K. Gartland, James Smith, Brian E. Wood, Anthony D. Ng, Elizabeth L. Celestino, Michael Drew, Katie Tyrell, Abigail S. Thorson, James T. |
spellingShingle |
Gaichas, Sarah K. Gartland, James Smith, Brian E. Wood, Anthony D. Ng, Elizabeth L. Celestino, Michael Drew, Katie Tyrell, Abigail S. Thorson, James T. Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents |
author_facet |
Gaichas, Sarah K. Gartland, James Smith, Brian E. Wood, Anthony D. Ng, Elizabeth L. Celestino, Michael Drew, Katie Tyrell, Abigail S. Thorson, James T. |
author_sort |
Gaichas, Sarah K. |
title |
Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents |
title_short |
Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents |
title_full |
Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents |
title_fullStr |
Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents |
title_sort |
assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences volume 81, issue 8, page 990-1012 ISSN 0706-652X 1205-7533 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_GB |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0093 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
_version_ |
1810463553049591808 |