Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee Status Report 2019/XX : Georges Bank Yellowtail Flounder Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee. TRAC Status Report 2019 Georges Bank yellowtail flounder

Combined Canada and USA catches in 2018 were 45 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 intersession conference call was applied to generate catch advice. The TRAC recommends an upper bound for the exploitation rate of 6% for catch advice, which results in 199 mt for 2020. The TRAC recommends setting the exploitation rate as low as possible below the upper bound of 6%. 2019 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center) Submitted Public Domain 1930