Introduction

This OM was built as part of a project with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to evaluate DLMtool for use in California state-managed marine fisheries.

The goal of the project was to demonstrate an efficient and transparent framework for improving the science for data-limited fisheries and for prioritizing future data collection.

Through close collaboration with CDFW biologists, the project has conducted case studies with four stocks: barred sand bass, Southern California halibut, red sea urchin, and warty sea cucumber. A current project with CDFW, which commenced in February 2018, will update the OM for these cases studies, as well as build OM for several more data-limited fisheries in California.

This document describes the OM for the southern California halibut. Several features have been added to DLMtool (e.g., historical MPAs, retention curves and discard mortality) since this OM was built. Default assumptions for these parameters have been made in this OM, and the OM will be updated as part of the 2018 project.

Operating Model

The OM rdata file can be downloaded from here

Download and import into R using myOM <- readRDS('OM.rdata')

Species Information

Species: Paralichthys californicus

Common Name: California Halibut

Management Agency: CDFW

Region: California, USA

Sponsor: Resource Legacy Fund

Latitude: 34.42083

Longitude: -119.69819

OM Parameters

OM Name: Name of the operating model: HAL_CA

nsim: The number of simulations: 500

proyears: The number of projected years: 50

interval: The assessment interval - how often would you like to update the management system? 4

pstar: The percentile of the sample of the management recommendation for each method: 0.5

maxF: Maximum instantaneous fishing mortality rate that may be simulated for any given age class: 0.8

reps: Number of samples of the management recommendation for each method. Note that when this is set to 1, the mean value of the data inputs is used. 1

Source: A reference to a website or article from which parameters were taken to define the operating model

See full report for details

Stock Parameters

Mortality and age: maxage, R0, M, M2, Mexp, Msd

maxage: The maximum age of individuals that is simulated (there is no plus group ). Single value. Positive integer

Specified Value(s): 40

See M.

R0: The magnitude of unfished recruitment. Single value. Positive real number

Specified Value(s): 1e+05

Fixed at an arbitrary 100,000.

M: Natural mortality rate. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real number

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.2

Natural mortality for the California halibut is not well understood, and is estimated to be within the range of 0.1 – 0.3. Reed and MacCall (1988) estimated M as 0.3 using the method of Pauly (1980) and 0.15 is based on Hoenig’s (1983) method using age of oldest individual.

A range of 0.1 – 0.2 was considered most appropriate by Reed and MacCall (1988) and was used in this study. Maximum age is believed to be about 30 years old, although individuals of this age are rarely seen today. The maximum age in the model was set to 40 to account for the scenarios with lower M.

M2: (Optional) Natural mortality rate at age. Vector of length maxage . Positive real number

Slot not used.

Mexp: Exponent of the Lorenzen function assuming an inverse relationship between M and weight. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Real numbers <= 0.

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

Natural mortality was assumed to be constant at age.

Msd: Inter-annual variability in natural mortality rate expressed as a coefficient of variation. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0.05

No justification provided.

Natural Mortality Parameters

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of M, Mexp, and Msd parameters, with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

The average natural mortality rate by year for adult fish for 3 simulations. The vertical dashed line indicates the end of the historical period:

M-at-Age

Natural mortality-at-age for 3 simulations in the first historical year, the last historical year (i.e., current year), and the last projected year:

M-at-Length

Natural mortality-at-length for 3 simulations in the first historical year, the last historical year (i.e., current year), and the last projected year:

Recruitment: h, SRrel, Perr, AC

h: Steepness of the stock recruit relationship. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Values from 1/5 to 1

Specified Value(s): 0.6, 0.9

There does not appear to be a relationship between spawning stock abundance and the magnitude of recruitment for the range of stock sizes that have been observed (Maunder et al., 2011). The recent stock assessment assumed a steepness (h) of 1, which means that recruitment is
independent of spawning stock and results in a very BMSY.

However, it is believed that strong autocorrelation in recruitment due to favorable environmental conditions may affect the estimation of the stock-recruit curve.

The spawning stock appears to have been at low levels for the last three decades, and there may be insufficient contrast in the data to estimate steepness reliably. However, there is evidence that steepness is high for productive flatfish (van der Veer et al. 2015). The range for steepness was set at 0.7 – 0.9. Recruitment is known to be relatively variable, with clear large recruitment years, and high auto-correlation. Recruitment process error (Perr) was set at 0.3 – 0.6 and auto-correlation (AC) at 0.5 – 0.9.

SRrel: Type of stock-recruit relationship. Single value, switch (1) Beverton-Holt (2) Ricker. Integer

Specified Value(s): 1

A Beverton-Holt stock-recruitment was used.

Perr: Process error, the CV of lognormal recruitment deviations. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.3, 0.6

See h

AC: Autocorrelation in recruitment deviations rec(t)=ACrec(t-1)+(1-AC)sigma(t). Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.5, 0.9

See h

Recruitment Parameters

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of steepness (h), recruitment process error (Perr) and auto-correlation (AC) for the Beverton-Holt stock-recruitment relationship, with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Non-stationarity in stock productivity: Period, Amplitude

Period: (Optional) Period for cyclical recruitment pattern in years. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Slot not used.

Amplitude: (Optional) Amplitude in deviation from long-term average recruitment during recruitment cycle (eg a range from 0 to 1 means recruitment decreases or increases by up to 100% each cycle). Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. 0 < Amplitude < 1

Slot not used.

Growth: Linf, K, t0, LenCV, Ksd, Linfsd

Linf: Maximum length. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 821, 1914

Growth has been well studied, but appears to vary between regions (Southern and Central) and perhaps also over time (MacNair et al. 2001, Barnes et al. 2015). Females grow considerably larger than males, and all parameters reported below are for female fish. The sexual dimorphism in growth must be accounted for when evaluating the practical application of models that rely on length data.

The von Bertalanffy growth parameters for southern California halibut have been estimated at Linf = 925.3 mm (standard error (SE) 121.4), K = 0.08 (0.02) and t0 = -2.2 (0.41) for males, and Linf = 1367.7 mm (273.4), K = 0.08 (0.02) and t0 = -1.2 (0.48) for females (MacNair et al. 2001). The DLMtool is a single-sex model, and parameters from the female growth curve were used to set the parameter range. The ranges for the growth parameters were set at the reported mean +/- two times the reported standard deviation.

K: von Bertalanffy growth parameter k. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.04, 0.12

See Linf

t0: von Bertalanffy theoretical age at length zero. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): -2.16, -0.24

See Linf

LenCV: Coefficient of variation of length-at-age (assumed constant for all age classes). Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.15

No information was available, default values were used.

Ksd: Inter-annual variability in growth parameter k expressed as coefficient of variation. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0.02

No justification provided.

Linfsd: Inter-annual variability in maximum length expressed as a coefficient of variation. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0.02

No justification provided.

Growth Parameters

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of von Bertalanffy growth parameters Linf, K, and t0, and inter-annual variability in Linf and K (Linfsd and Ksd), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

The Linf and K parameters in each year for 3 simulations. The vertical dashed line indicates the end of the historical period:

Growth Curves

Sampled length-at-age curves for 3 simulations in the first historical year, the last historical year, and the last projection year.

Maturity: L50, L50_95

L50: Length at 50 percent maturity. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 424, 515

Love and Brooks (1990) estimated the size at maturity for the California halibut. They estimated L50 of 471 mm and L95 of about 600 mm for female fish. The range for L50 was set at the reported value for females (471) +/- a CV of 10% (424 – 515 mm) and L50_95 at 80 – 100 mm.

L50_95: Length increment from 50 percent to 95 percent maturity. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 80, 100

See above.

Maturity Parameters

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of L50 (length at 50% maturity), L95 (length at 95% maturity), and corresponding derived age at maturity parameters (A50 and A95), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Maturity at Age and Length

Maturity-at-age and -length for 3 simulations in the first historical year, the last historical year (i.e., current year), and the last projected year:

Stock depletion and Discard Mortality: D, Fdisc

D: Current level of stock depletion SSB(current)/SSB(unfished). Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Fraction

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.25

The 2011 stock assessment estimated that southern stock of California halibut is at 14% of virgin stock size. The range for depletion in the operating model was set to 0.10 – 0.25 to reflect the low but uncertain estimate of current stock size.

Fdisc: Fraction of discarded fish that die. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

Discard mortality was not included in DLMtool at the time this OM was built. Recent versions of DLMtool now include discard mortality.

Depletion and Discard Mortality

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of depletion (spawning biomass in the last historical year over average unfished spawning biomass; D) and the fraction of discarded fish that are killed by fishing mortality (Fdisc), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values.

Length-weight conversion parameters: a, b

a: Length-weight parameter alpha. Single value. Positive real number

Specified Value(s): 0

Length-weight parameters from Reed and MacCall (1988).

b: Length-weight parameter beta. Single value. Positive real number

Specified Value(s): 3.05

See above

Spatial distribution and movement: Size_area_1, Frac_area_1, Prob_staying

Size_area_1: The size of area 1 relative to area 2. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.15, 0.25

The Size_area_1 slot was not included in DLMtool at the time of this analyis. For this OM this Size_area_1
has been set equal to Frac_area_1 which assumes equal density in Area 1 and Area 2.

Frac_area_1: The fraction of the unfished biomass in stock 1. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.15, 0.25

The fraction of the stock in area 1 (Frac_area_1) was based on the assumption that MPAs cover about 15 - 25% of the area in California waters.

Prob_staying: The probability of inviduals in area 1 remaining in area 1 over the course of one year. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive fraction.

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.1

California halibut are highly mobile. The probability of staying in Area 1 (Prob_staying) in a given year was set to the same values as those for the barred sand bass (0.095 – 0.105).

Spatial & Movement

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of size of area 1 (Size_area_1), fraction of unfished biomass in area 1 (Frac_area_1), and the probability of staying in area 1 in a year (Frac_area_1), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Fleet Parameters

Historical years of fishing, spatial targeting: nyears, Spat_targ

nyears: The number of years for the historical spool-up simulation. Single value. Positive integer

Specified Value(s): 117

The fishery for California halibut began in the late 1800s, and the number of historical years (nyears) was set to 117 years (1900 – 2016).

Spat_targ: Distribution of fishing in relation to spatial biomass: fishing distribution is proportional to B^Spat_targ. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Real numbers

Specified Value(s): 1, 1

Targeting was assumed proportional to biomass.

Trend in historical fishing effort (exploitation rate), interannual variability in fishing effort: EffYears, EffLower, EffUpper, Esd

EffYears: Years representing join-points (vertices) of time-varying effort. Vector. Non-negative real numbers

Data from the CPFV fleet logbooks, using only records where California halibut were caught, fishing effort in recent decades appears to have been relatively constant. The broad trends in historical fishing effort were based on those used for the barred sand bass, except that for the halibut there has does not appear to have been a decline in effort in recent years. The CPFV data may be problematic because the fleet targets multiple species and effort records may not accurately reflect the fishing effort on the halibut stock alone. We recommend that single-species historical effort trends are developed for the halibut fishery and used to parameterize the MSE model in the future.

EffLower: Lower bound on relative effort corresponding to EffYears. Vector. Non-negative real numbers

See EffYears

EffUpper: Upper bound on relative effort corresponding to EffYears. Vector. Non-negative real numbers

See EffYears

EffYears EffLower EffUpper
1900 0.00 0.00
1911 0.10 0.20
1921 0.10 0.20
1932 0.00 0.00
1942 0.00 0.00
1953 0.35 0.65
1963 0.65 0.95
1974 0.65 0.95
1984 0.65 0.75
1995 0.85 1.00
2005 0.85 1.00
2016 0.85 1.00

Esd: Additional inter-annual variability in fishing mortality rate. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.4

Default values from DLMtool were used for the inter-annual variability in fishing mortality.

Historical Effort

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in historical fishing mortality (Esd), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in the time-series plot:

Time-Series

Time-series plot showing 3 trends in historical fishing mortality (OM@EffUpper and OM@EffLower or OM@cpars$Find):

Annual increase in catchability, interannual variability in catchability: qinc, qcv

qinc: Average percentage change in fishing efficiency (applicable only to forward projection and input controls). Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 2

Default values from DLMtool were used for the annual increase in catchability.

qcv: Inter-annual variability in fishing efficiency (applicable only to forward projection and input controls). Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.3

Default values from DLMtool were used for the annual variability in catchability.

Future Catchability

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in fishing efficiency (qcv) and average annual change in fishing efficiency (qinc), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in the time-series plot:

Time-Series

Time-series plot showing 3 trends in future fishing efficiency (catchability):

Fishery gear length selectivity: L5, LFS, Vmaxlen, isRel

L5: Shortest length corresponding to 5 percent vulnerability. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

See SelYears

LFS: Shortest length that is fully vulnerable to fishing. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

See SelYears

Vmaxlen: The vulnerability of fish at . Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Fraction

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

See SelYears

isRel: Selectivity parameters in units of size-of-maturity (or absolute eg cm). Single value. Boolean.

Specified Value(s): FALSE

Selectivity parameters are in absolute units.

Fishery length retention: LR5, LFR, Rmaxlen, DR

LR5: Shortest length corresponding ot 5 percent retention. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

This slot was not included in DLMtool at the time the OM was built. The retention curve is assumed to be equivalent to the selectivity curve, which may not be a correct assumption for this fishery. See SelYears for more details.

LFR: Shortest length that is fully retained. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

See LR5

Rmaxlen: The retention of fish at . Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 1, 1

See LR5

DR: Discard rate - the fraction of caught fish that are discarded. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Fraction

Slot not used.

Time-varying selectivity: SelYears, AbsSelYears, L5Lower, L5Upper, LFSLower, LFSUpper, VmaxLower, VmaxUpper

SelYears: (Optional) Years representing join-points (vertices) at which historical selectivity pattern changes. Vector. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 1, 80

The California halibut stock is targeted by several fleets and different gear types. The fishery also has a long history of regulations, including closed areas and size limits. A minimum legal length of 559 mm was implemented in 1971 for all recreationally landed fish and then in 1979 for all commercially landed fish (Maunder et al. 2011). There is some amount of catch below this limit, which varies by fleet. The potential for dome-shaped selectivity exists among these fleets, and Vmaxlen was set to 0.5 – 1.0 for the historical period.

AbsSelYears: (Optional) Calendar years corresponding with SelYears (eg 1951, rather than 1), used for plotting only. Vector (of same length as SelYears). Positive real numbers

Slot not used.

L5Lower: (Optional) Lower bound of L5 (use ChooseSelect function to set these). Vector. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 211, 400

See SelYears

L5Upper: (Optional) Upper bound of L5 (use ChooseSelect function to set these). Vector. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 328, 500

See SelYears

LFSLower: (Optional) Lower bound of LFS (use ChooseSelect function to set these). Vector. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 445, 540

See SelYears

LFSUpper: (Optional) Upper bound of LFS (use ChooseSelect function to set these). Vector. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 450, 560

See SelYears

VmaxLower: (Optional) Lower bound of Vmaxlen (use ChooseSelect function to set these). Vector. Fraction

Specified Value(s): 0.5, 0.5

See SelYears

VmaxUpper: (Optional) Upper bound of Vmaxlen (use ChooseSelect function to set these). Vector. Fraction

Specified Value(s): 1, 1

See SelYears

Current Year: CurrentYr

CurrentYr: The current calendar year (final year) of the historical simulations (eg 2011). Single value. Positive integer.

Specified Value(s): 2016

The OM was populated on data from 2016

Existing Spatial Closures: MPA

MPA: (Optional) Matrix specifying spatial closures for historical years.

Slot not used.

Obs Parameters

Except where information was found to suggest alternative values, the parameters used for the observation model were based on the values presented in Carruthers et al. (2014) and are found in the ‘Generic_Obs’ observation object in the DLMtool.

Catch statistics: Cobs, Cbiascv, CAA_nsamp, CAA_ESS, CAL_nsamp, CAL_ESS

Cobs: Log-normal catch observation error expressed as a coefficient of variation. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.3

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Cbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation controlling the sampling of bias in catch observations for each simulation. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

CAA_nsamp: Number of catch-at-age observation per time step. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 100, 200

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

CAA_ESS: Effective sample size (independent age draws) of the multinomial catch-at-age observation error model. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive integers

Specified Value(s): 25, 50

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

CAL_nsamp: Number of catch-at-length observation per time step. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive integers

Specified Value(s): 100, 200

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

CAL_ESS: Effective sample size (independent length draws) of the multinomial catch-at-length observation error model. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive integers

Specified Value(s): 25, 50

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Index imprecision, bias and hyperstability: Iobs, Ibiascv, Btobs, Btbiascv, beta

Iobs: Observation error in the relative abundance indices expressed as a coefficient of variation. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.4

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Ibiascv: Not Used. Log-normal coefficient of variation controlling error in observations of relative abundance index. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Btobs: Log-normal coefficient of variation controlling error in observations of current stock biomass among years. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.33, 3

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Btbiascv: Uniform-log bounds for sampling persistent bias in current stock biomass. Uniform-log distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2, 0.5

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

beta: A parameter controlling hyperstability/hyperdepletion where values below 1 lead to hyperstability (an index that decreases slower than true abundance) and values above 1 lead to hyperdepletion (an index that decreases more rapidly than true abundance). Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.8, 1.2

The range for the beta parameter was set to 0.8 – 1.2 to reflect the perceived increased reliability of CPUE data for this stock compared to the “Generic_obs” default values.

Bias in maturity, natural mortality rate and growth parameters: LenMbiascv, Mbiascv, Kbiascv,t0biascv, Linfbiascv

LenMbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in length at 50 percent maturity. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Mbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in observed natural mortality rate. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.3

The CV for natural mortality was increased to 30% to reflect high uncertainty in this parameter.

Kbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in observed growth parameter K. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

t0biascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in observed t0. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Linfbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in observed maximum length. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.05

See Kbiascv

Bias in length at first capture, length at full selection: LFCbiascv, LFSbiascv

LFCbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in observed length at first capture. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.05

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

LFSbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in length-at-full selection. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.05

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Bias in fishery reference points, unfished biomass, FMSY, FMSY/M ratio, biomass at MSY relative to unfished: FMSYbiascv, FMSY_Mbiascv, BMSY_B0biascv

FMSYbiascv: Not used. Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in FMSY. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

FMSY_Mbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in FMSY/M. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

BMSY_B0biascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in BMSY relative to unfished. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Management targets in terms of the index (i.e., model free), the total annual catches and absolute biomass levels: Irefbiascv, Crefbiascv, Brefbiascv

Irefbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in relative abundance index at BMSY. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Crefbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in MSY. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Brefbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in BMSY. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.5

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Depletion bias and imprecision: Dbiascv, Dobs

Dbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in stock depletion. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.5

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Dobs: Log-normal coefficient of variation controlling error in observations of stock depletion among years. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.05, 0.1

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Recruitment compensation and trend: hbiascv, Recbiascv

hbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in steepness. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.2

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Recbiascv: Log-normal coefficient of variation for sampling persistent bias in recent recruitment strength. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real numbers

Specified Value(s): 0.1, 0.3

Borrowed from Generic_Obs

Obs Plots

Observation Parameters

Catch Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in catch observations (Csd) and persistent bias in observed catch (Cbias), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Depletion Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in depletion observations (Dobs) and persistent bias in observed depletion (Dbias), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Abundance Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in abundance observations (Btobs) and persistent bias in observed abundance (Btbias), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Index Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in index observations (Iobs) and hyper-stability/depletion in observed index (beta), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Time-series plot of 3 samples of index observation error:

Plot showing an example true abundance index (blue) with 3 samples of index observation error and the hyper-stability/depletion parameter (beta):

Recruitment Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in index observations (Recsd) , with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Composition Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of catch-at-age effective sample size (CAA_ESS) and sample size (CAA_nsamp) and catch-at-length effective (CAL_ESS) and actual sample size (CAL_nsamp) with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values:

Parameter Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of bias in observed natural mortality (Mbias), von Bertalanffy growth function parameters (Linfbias, Kbias, and t0bias), length-at-maturity (lenMbias), and bias in observed length at first capture (LFCbias) and first length at full capture (LFSbias) with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values:

Reference Point Observations

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of bias in observed FMSY/M (FMSY_Mbias), BMSY/B0 (BMSY_B0bias), reference index (Irefbias), reference abundance (Brefbias) and reference catch (Crefbias), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values:

Imp Parameters

Implementation error was not included in DLMtool at the time this OM was built. Here it is assumed that management is implemented perfectly. These values may be updated when the OM is revised in 2018.

Output Control Implementation Error: TACFrac, TACSD

TACFrac: Mean fraction of TAC taken. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real number.

Specified Value(s): 1, 1

Borrowed from Perfect_Imp

TACSD: Log-normal coefficient of variation in the fraction of Total Allowable Catch (TAC) taken. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers.

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

Borrowed from Perfect_Imp

Effort Control Implementation Error: TAEFrac, TAESD

TAEFrac: Mean fraction of TAE taken. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real number.

Specified Value(s): 1, 1

Borrowed from Perfect_Imp

TAESD: Log-normal coefficient of variation in the fraction of Total Allowable Effort (TAE) taken. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers.

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

Borrowed from Perfect_Imp

Size Limit Control Implementation Error: SizeLimFrac, SizeLimSD

SizeLimFrac: The real minimum size that is retained expressed as a fraction of the size. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Positive real number.

Specified Value(s): 1, 1

Borrowed from Perfect_Imp

SizeLimSD: Log-normal coefficient of variation controlling mismatch between a minimum size limit and the real minimum size retained. Uniform distribution lower and upper bounds. Non-negative real numbers.

Specified Value(s): 0, 0

Borrowed from Perfect_Imp

Imp Plots

Implementation Parameters

TAC Implementation

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in TAC implementation error (TACSD) and persistent bias in TAC implementation (TACFrac), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

TAE Implementation

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in TAE implementation error (TAESD) and persistent bias in TAC implementation (TAEFrac), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Size Limit Implementation

Sampled Parameters

Histograms of 48 simulations of inter-annual variability in size limit implementation error (SizeLimSD) and persistent bias in size limit implementation (SizeLimFrac), with vertical colored lines indicating 3 randomly drawn values used in other plots:

Time-Series

Historical Simulation Plots

Historical Time-Series

Spawning Biomass

Depletion

Absolute

Vulnerable Biomass

Depletion

Absolute

Total Biomass

Depletion

Absolute

Recruitment

Relative

Absolute

Catch

Relative

Absolute

Historical Fishing Mortality

Historical Time-Series

References

Barnes, C.L., Starr, R.M., and Reilly, P.L. 2015. Growth, mortality, and reproductive seasonality of California halibut (Paralichthys californicus): A biogeographic approach.

Hoenig, J.M. 1983. Empirical use of longevity data to estimate mortality rates. Fish. Bull. 82:899–903

Love, M.S., and Brooks, A. 1990. Size and age at first maturity of the California halibut, Paralichthys californicus, in the Southern California Bight. In The California halibut, Paralichthys californicus, Resource and Fisheries. Edited by C.W. Haugen. California Department of Fish and Game, Fish Bulletin 174. pp. 167–174.

MacNair, L.S., Domeier, M.L., and Chun, C.S.Y. 2001. Age, growth, and mortality of California halibut, Paralichthys californicus, along southern and central California. Fish. Bull. 99: 588–600.

Maunder, M., Reilly, P., Tanaka, T., Schmidt, G., and Penttila, K. 2011. California Halibut Stock Assessment.

Pauly, D. 1980. On the interrelationships between natural mortality, growth parameters, and mean environmental temperature in 175 fish stocks. J Cons Int. Explor Mer. 39: 175–192.

Reed, R.R., and MacCall, A.D. 1988. Changing the size limit: How it could affect California halibut fisheries. Calif. Coop. Ocean. Fish. Investig. Reports 29: 158–166.

van der Veer, H.W., Freitas, V., and Leggett, W.C. 2015. Recruitment level and variability. In Flatfishes: biology and exploitation, 2nd edition. Edited by R.N. Gibson, R.D.M. Nash, A.J. Geffen, and H.W. van der Veer. Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex. p. 542.