An assessment of vulnerability in Alaska groundfish

Abstract Federal fishery management rules in the United States have recently changed, necessitating an examination of which fish stocks require annual catch limits and how appropriate stock complexes are formed. We used an analytical approach termed productivity–susceptibility analysis (PSA) to analyze the vulnerability of federally managed Alaska groundfish stocks to overfishing. The focus of the effort was non-target stocks that have limited data available for determining stock status and vulnerability. The PSA approach was originally created to assess risks to bycatch in Australian trawl fisheries and compares productivity attributes (e.g. life-history traits) to factors that determine a stock's susceptibility to fishing impacts, producing a combined score indicative of a stock's relative vulnerability to overfishing. We used a form of the PSA developed by a working group from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service specifically for use in assessing vulnerability in federally managed fisheries. Alaska groundfish displayed a wide range of vulnerability scores, and this result was mainly due to variability in productivity scores. Susceptibility scores varied less than productivity scores and were centered on an intermediate value. The inclusion of target stocks in the PSA was valuable for assessing the relative vulnerability of the non-target stocks. Sensitivity analyses indicated that PSAs respond differently to changes in attribute scores depending on their initial conditions, and managers should be careful in interpreting changes in PSA results when stocks are re-evaluated.