by

• Main Authors: Serial No, N Nafo, Scr Doc, H. Murua
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Atkinson; Greenland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.202.9929; http://www.nafo.ca/Publications/meetproc/SC-Reports/resdocs/scr03-043.pdf

The revised catch history after 1987 is presented, total SA 2+3 roughhead grenadier catch in 2002 was 3 657 tons. The trends in biomass estimates from four survey series are examined: Canadian fall, Canadian spring, Canadian Deepwater and EU summer div. 3M. Only the Canadian fall surveys are considered to cover adequately the species distribution range. The biomass index from this survey in 2002 was 35 282 tons, 43 % of it in Div. 3L. Commercial catch include mainly ages between 5 and 12, with a peak at age 8, in Spanish and Russian catches; and ages between 3 to 9, with a peak in 5-6, in the Portuguese catches. The C/B index using data from the 2002 Canadian fall survey is 0.1 (C/B2001 = 0.07). COMMERCIAL CATCHES It has been recognised that the recent catches of grenadiers by EU-Portugal and EU-Spain in Subarea 3, previously reported to NAFO as roundnose grenadiers, correspond to roughhead grenadier (Alpoim et al., 1994; Power and Parsons, 1998; Junquera, 1998). The reason for this misclassification could be mainly because roundnose grenadier was the only name that appears in the statistical data reporting forms. The misreporting has not yet been resolved in the official statistics before 1996, but the species are reported correctly since 1997. Beginning in 1990, more roughhead grenadier has been caught than roundnose grenadier (Atkinson, 1995). Roughhead grenadier is taken as by-catch in the Greenland halibut fishery in the Regulatory Area mainly in Div. 3LMN. The revised catch history after 1987 is presented in Table 1 and Fig. 1. Catches increased sharply from 1989 (333 tons) gradually until the highest level of 7 231 tons observed in 1998; since then, it has continued decreasing steadily up to 2002 (3 657 tons). At present most catches are taken in Div. 3LMN and no catches are recorded in SA 2. The largest proportion of those catches by country corresponds to Spain (Table 2). • Canadian fall survey