Workshop Announcement

The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM) will host a technical workshop on Selectivity: theory, estimation, and application in fishery stock assessment models in La Jolla, CA, USA from March 11-14, 2013.

The selectivity workshop is one in a series sponsored by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Assessment Methods Working Group for improving stock assessments used to manage exploited marine resources. The CAPAM is a newly established collaborative effort between the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO, University of California, San Diego) for purposes of developing both research and education frameworks to address modern stock assessment modeling issues. The CAPAM team representing the above institutions includes Paul Crone (SWFSC, Paul.Crone@noaa.gov), Mark Maunder (IATTC, MMaunder@iattc.org), and Brice Semmens (SIO, Semmens@ucsd.edu).

The primary goal of the workshop is to provide advice and guidance on practices for modeling selectivity in formal stock assessments. The 4-day forum will include presentations and focused discussions to evaluate how model configurations interact with estimation of alternative selectivity forms. Specifically, the following topics are planned to be covered.

• Factors that influence selection processes, e.g., fish behavior, population distribution, and gear types
• Assumptions and estimators for functional forms used to model selectivity
• Selectivity specifications, including age- vs. size-based, time-varying vs. constant, and asymptotic vs. dome-shaped
• Interactions with other model parameters of interest, e.g., recruitment, natural mortality, and growth
• Simulation testing methods and application to management strategy evaluations
• An informal working session will take place on Monday (March 11^th, 2013) that will address modeling selectivity in stock assessments using the Stock Synthesis model (all attendees are welcome to participate in this interactive session)

Scientists are encouraged to present information from both ongoing research efforts, as well as completed studies. Attendees who plan to present information need to submit an abstract (one page maximum) to CAPAM by February 1, 2013. For registration, presentation, and related information concerning the overall workshop please visit the CAPAM website (www.CAPAMresearch.org) or contact Jenny McDaniel (Jenny.McDaniel@noaa.gov).

Location: NOAA/NMFS, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

Steering Committee: CAPAM team, Jim Ianelli (NMFS), Rick Methot (NMFS), Rick Deriso (IATTC), Andre Punt (UW), and Steve Cadrin (UMASS)