Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee Status Report 2018/03 : Georges Bank Yellowtail Flounder TRAC. 2018. Georges Bank Yellowtail Flounder. TRAC Status Report 2018/03

Combined Canada and United States (US) catches in 2017 were 95 mt. The declining trend in survey biomass to low levels, despite reductions in catch to historical low amounts, indicates a poor state of the resource. Recent catch is low relative to the biomass estimated from the surveys but catch curve analyses indicate declining but high total mortality rates (Z above 1 for most years). Stock biomass is low and productivity is poor with all three surveys showing low recent recruitment. An empirical approach based on survey catches developed during the 2014 Georges Bank Yellowtail Flounder Diagnostic and Empirical Approach Benchmark and updated during the 2017 intersessional conference call was applied to generate catch advice. For catch advice, the Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee (TRAC) recommended an upper bound of 6% for the exploitation rate, which results in 68 mt for 2019. 2018 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center) Submitted Public Domain 1930