Summary

mackerel stock is continuing its expansion which began in 1981. Nominal catch rose from 39,000 mt in 1984 to 57,000 mt in 1985 and the USA domestic fishery harvested 6,700 mt, the eighth increase in a row. Current information suggests that the 1981, 1982 and 1984 year classes are all above average in strength and contributing heavily to the fishery. Present stock size from VPA 1s approximately 1.5 million mt and the spawning stock is about 1.3 million tons. Catch projections _u~der an FO.1 management strategy produce an expected catch of 285-334 thousand mt depending on recruitment assumptions used. A 1986 catch of 50-60 thousand mt will produce an increase in spawning stock in 1987, even under a conservative projection of recruitment from the 1983 and 1984 year classes.-2-NOMINAL CATCH Nominal catches of Atlantic mackerel rose 44 % in 1985, increasing from 39,445 mt in 1984. to 56,997 mt (Table 1). After a period of stable landings (1978-1983) catches have increased in the last two years. The increase is due primarily to joint venture catches by countries other than the US and Canada, including GOR (19%) and the Netherlands (26%) who accounted for 26,010 mt; 46% of the total. Overall landings from the mackerel stock are still small compared to the aggregate international catches that occurred from 1969-1976 in'the Mid-Atlantic area, ~ut all available information indicates that landings will continue to increase in the future, contingeni on interest, speci fi c management and regul ati on. The USA commercial catch has increased in every year since 1977 and accounted for about 12 % of the total catch in 1985 (Table 1). USA commercial landings were 6,697 mt in 1985, a 13 % increase over 1984. The estimated Canadian catch of 16,590 mt for 1985 is similar to the amount landed the previous year (Table 1). The Northeast Fisheries Center continued to conduct a cooperative research fishery with Poland in 1985 resulting in a total ' 'of 6,200 mt. CONTRIBUTION OF RECENT YEAR CLASSES

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.