Acoustic Surveys and Experimental Gillnetting of Local Spawning Beds for Fall Herring

This project is aimed at enhancing knowledge of local fall herring populations and their relation to the global southern Gulf of St. Lawrence herring stock, and to develop spawning-bed specific indices of biomass and relative fishing mortalities for stock assessment purposes. The data obtained from this survey will increase the spawning ground specific information and improve the assessment quality in terms of changes in selectivity over time, non-proportionality of fishery-dependent indices and lack of local stock indices. To achieve this goal, this project will produce two sets of indices: the first will be based on local acoustic surveys conducted weekly following a statistical sampling design. This index will provide information on local abundance and spatio-temporal distribution of fall spawning herring. The second will be based on multi-mesh experimental nets, which will inform relative changes in fishery selectivity over time and provide information on the demographic composition of herring.