The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Groundfish Subcommittee of the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will will convene an online meeting to review the suitability of fish age estimates developed using Fourier Transformed Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-NIRS) for inclusion in groundfish stock assessments. This meeting is open to the public and will be held Tuesday, October 1, and Wednesday, October 2, daily from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Time or until business for the day has been completed. This meeting is being conducted remotely with a web broadcast that provides the opportunity for remote public comment. In the event an outage occurs or technical issues arise that impact the experience of remote attendees, we will attempt to resolve them but ultimately we cannot guarantee that they will be resolved satisfactorily.
Purpose of the meeting
The purpose of the groundfish methodology review meeting is aimed at evaluating FT-NIRS to provide a reliable alternative to traditional ageing. Proponents plan to explore and document the variability in estimated relationships between traditional age reads and spectral data across major categorical dimensions. In addition, the review may evaluate the effect that replacing large blocks of traditional ages in assessments with FT-NIRS ages has on important assessment metrics. Evaluation of the benefits of including additional variables and the costs/implications for use of the age data in estimating other relationships, such as growth, will be explored, as time permits. This review is planned in preparation for the 2025 groundfish stock assessment cycle. The results of this review are not considered final until reviewed by the full SSC at a future Council meeting.
Terms of Reference for the Methodology Review Process for Groundfish and CPS for 2025-2026
Meeting Materials
Assessment Sensitivity to Replacing 2017-22 Ages (Excel file)
Presentation: B.1 GFSC Review FT – NIRS – Overview by Helser
Presentation: B.2 GFSC Review FT – NIRS – Methods and Neural Network Modeling
Presentation B.3 GFSC Review FT – NIRS – Sablefish age comparisons
Presentation: B.4 GFSC Review FT – NIRS – Rougheye Blackspotted Rockfish
Presentation: B.6 GFSC FT-NIRS – Pacific Hake NN
Presentation: B.7 GFSC Review FT – NIRS – Sablefish FT-NIRs Sensitivities
Additional information
Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Kris Kleinschmidt at 503-820-2412 at least ten business days prior to the meeting date.
If you have additional questions regarding the meeting, please contact Marlene A. Bellman at 503-820-2414; toll free 1-866-806-7204, extension 414.