Resource Ecology & Fisheries Management (REFM) Division
Age and Growth Program
Age & Growth Program Production Numbers:
Estimated production figures for 1 January -
31 December 2009. Total production figures
were 32,441 with 7,884 test ages and 446
examined and determined to be unageable. |
| Species |
Specimens Aged |
| Alaska plaice |
353 |
| Arctic cod |
1,205 |
| Atka mackerel |
1,252 |
| Bering flounder |
547 |
| Bigmouth sculpin |
40 |
| Blackspotted rockfish |
390 |
| Dusky rockfish |
515 |
| Flathead sole |
1,055 |
| Greenland turbot |
1,627 |
| Northern rock sole |
1,122 |
| Northern rockfish |
1,083 |
| Pacific cod |
3,801 |
| Pacific ocean perch |
1,619 |
| Quillback rockfish |
52 |
| Rex sole |
1,589 |
| Rougheye rockfish |
654 |
| Sablefish |
2,393 |
| Shortraker rockfish |
1,202 |
| Walleye pollock |
10,561 |
| Yellowfin sole |
1,381 |
|
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New Age & Growth Prioritization System (AGPS)
is Launched
The need to improve age-structured stock assessments and develop a framework for ecosystem fisheries management continually places greater demands on the Age and Growth Program to age otoliths and other hard structures. Age and Growth Program staff age more than 30,000 otoliths per year from observer and survey collections as part of the production numbers that support annual age-structured stock assessments.
With research cruises expanding the geographical boundaries of traditional surveys, enhancements to assessments using historical otolith collections, special research projects that require sample ages, and research in age validation and growth studies, the demand for ageing has outpaced the available resource capabilities of the program.
Consequently, to balance the demand for ageing requests and available Age and Growth program capabilities and resources, the Age and Growth Prioritization System (AGPS) was developed. The AGPS is a web-based ageing request and prioritization system intended to provide a systematic process of compiling and prioritizing ageing requests that are processed each year by staff of the Age and Growth Program.
For the end user who submits an ageing request, the AGPS is an easy to use web-page interface that tracks and notifies the requestor throughout the process, from submission to final prioritization. For the Age and Growth Program, the AGPS provides a mechanism to balance limited program resources to the growing number of agency and external requests for hard structure ageing. For the Center the AGPS provides a process of prioritizing ageing request in a fair and transparent manner that serves NOAA’s mission directives.
By Tom Helser
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