DOI:10.1577/M04-111.1 Index-Removal Estimates of Dredge Efficiency for Sea Scallops

• Main Authors: On Georges Bank, Todd Gedamke, William D. Dupaul, John, M. Hoenig
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.500.1437; http://www.fisheries.vims.edu/hoenig/pdfs/Gedamke_et_al_scallop_index_removal.pdf

access to the southern section of Georges Bank Closed Area II in the North Atlantic to harvest the large biomass of sea scallops Placopecten magellanicus that had ac-cumulated during a 5-year multispecies fishing ban. Pri-or to the opening, managers conducted a fine-scale sur-vey of the area and a catch quota was established as a fixed percentage of the estimated biomass. The estimate of biomass was uncertain because it was based on es-timates of dredge efficiency that ranged from 16 % to 40%. Because survey stations were reoccupied at the end of the fishery and significant removals had occurred, it was possible to use the index-removal method to ob-tain an estimate of gear efficiency. The estimate was 54 % and ranged from 41 % to 54 % depending on model inputs. The 54 % efficiency is believed to represent a