Abstract
Currently monkfish (Lophius americanus) are data-poor, cannot be aged and are managed using data-poor methods. Since 2016, stock assessments of monkfish have been unable to provide estimates for monkfish abundance and fishing mortality rates due to uncertainties related to monkfish aging and growth. While monkfish landings have decreased, fishermen have raised concerns that monkfish landings have been low recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of markets, high trip costs, low fish prices, and other factors, and does not necessarily reflect a decrease in monkfish abundance. The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance was recently awarded funding for a monkfish Research Set-Aside project that will develop standardized catch per unit effort (CPUE) indices for the commercial directed monkfish gillnet fishery. This project identified areas, particularly close to shore and during the spring season, where gillnet fishermen successfully catch monkfish, while the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) trawl survey fails to catch monkfish within the same area. The project revealed a temporal variation in monkfish distribution, with monkfish making seasonal inshore-offshore migrations. Despite the high CPUE of the NEFSC survey, limitations were highlighted due to the high CPUE of commercial gillnets occurring during seasons when the survey is not conducted. This project emphasized the need to incorporate observer data from commercial fishing vessels, to improve monkfish management as there are concerns that the NEFSC trawl survey may not be catching monkfish consistently. Therefore, the upcoming RSA project is crucial to improve monkfish management, as it will standardize fishery catch rates. Fishery independent surveys are designed to standardize for vessel, fishing gear, fishing protocol, as well as time and area. By contrast, fishery catch rates need to be standardized, because fishing efforts result from individual fishing business decisions that are incentivized by market demands and constrained by fishing regulations.