An online workshop is planned Sept. 22-23 to help turn around reduced sampling of commercial fisheries landings in the Northeast, and its effects on stock assessments, organizers say.
“Reduced sampling of commercial landings in our region has been identified as a significant threat to stock assessment integrity,” according to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “To help address this threat and optimize federal and state sampling efforts, the Northeast Region Coordinating Council is hosting a virtual State-Federal Commercial Landings Sampling Workshop on September 22–23, 2025.”
Originally formed in 2001, the Northeast council draws members from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, the Mid-Atlantic and New England fishery management councils, and NMFS’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
The coordinating council’s stated mission is to “prioritize, communicate, and coordinate fisheries scientific and management resources through in-person meetings that include Federal, State, Council, and Commission managers and scientists of the Greater Atlantic region of the United States.”
Biological sampling – the scientific basis for characterizing the size and age composition of commercial landings – has declined markedly since 2019, according to the Northeast science center.
“This threatens to undermine the integrity of analytic stock assessments for species managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils. Supplemental sampling by state agencies could augment federal sampling programs in corresponding state ports resulting in improved characterization of commercial landings.”
States from Maine to North Carolina support some sampling of commercial landings in their ports – some with robust sampling programs, while others are limited.
The online workshop is seen as a first step to “describe current practices and identify opportunities for greater coordination among sampling programs. This effort could result in standardization of sampling practices across federal and state agencies,” according to the science center. “Expansion of cooperative efforts among state and federal programs could result in a significant improvement in the characterization of landings data used to assess stocks in the region.”
Organizers are looking to:
· Promote information exchange relative to sampling activities among state and federal programs
· Share sampling technology among programs
· Evaluate the collective dependency of our landings sampling programs on various sources of funding
· Generate recommendations to improve sampling coordination and data accessibility
