Assessment of the Pacific sardine resource in 2018 for U.S. management in 2018-19

"The following Pacific sardine assessment update was conducted to inform U.S. fishery management for the cycle that begins July 1, 2018 and ends June 30, 2019. Two assessment approaches were reviewed at the STAR Panel in February 2017: an AT survey-based approach (preferred by the STAT); and a model-based assessment (model ALT). Given forecasting issues highlighted in the review (see STAR 2017 and 'Unresolved Problems and Major Uncertainties' below), the Panel ultimately recommended that management advice be based on model ALT for the 2017-18 fishing year. The following update of model ALT represents the final base model from the February 2017 STAR (Hill et al. 2017, STAR 2017) with the addition of updated/new landings (2016-17), one AT-based biomass estimate and age composition from the SWFSC's summer 2017 survey, along with one additional recruitment deviation for estimation of the 2017 year class"--Executive summary. Kevin T. Hill, Paul R. Crone and Juan P. Zwolinski. "April 2018." Includes bibliographical references (pages 42-47).