Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico: Fishery characteristics and biological reference points for management

Gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, plays a key ecological role in the northern Gulf of Mexico and supports the second largest commercial fishery by weight in the United States. Here we describe that fishery and propose biological reference points (BRPs) for its management. The BRPs represent targets and limits of both fishing mortality rate (F) and population fecundity (Ψ), where target is defined as the management goal, and limit, a value to be avoided (F < FLimit and Ψ > ΨLimit). We assess stock status relative to the BRPs by fitting a statistical catch-age model to fishery-dependent and fishery-independent data spanning 1964–2004. Results indicate that in the terminal year neither limit reference point is exceeded (F2004/FLimit = 0.75 and Ψ2004/ΨLimit = 1.86). Of possible concern, however, is a recent increase in fishing mortality and decrease in population fecundity. With these trends, terminal values exceed their targets (F2004/FTarget = 1.16 and Ψ2004/ΨTarget = 0.93), although by little relative to uncertainty in the estimates. Sensitivity analyses show these results are robust to model assumptions.