Assessment of the skate stock complex in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands BSAI Chapter 18

The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) skate complex is managed in aggregate, with a single set of harvest specifications applied to the entire complex. However, to generate the harvest recommendations the stock is divided into two units. Harvest recommendations for Alaska skate Bathyraja parmifera, the most abundant skate species in the BSAI, are made using the results of an age structured model and Tier 3. The remaining species (“other skates”) are managed under Tier 5 due to a lack of data. The Tier 3 and Tier 5 recommendations are combined to generate recommendations for the complex as a whole.