Catch of Bottomfish Management Unit Species of Guam

The Guam Department of Agriculture, Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources boat-based and shore-based creel surveys provided species-level annual catch estimates, and their sums were compared against lower bounds established by the Commercial Fisheries Biosampling Program and the Commercial Purchase Invoice Program to generate the final catch series. These catch estimates for individual BMUS rely on a limited sample size of observations; hence, uncertainty in estimates is high. High uncertainty of catch estimates may mask temporal trends for some BMUS, although there are apparent decreasing catch trends for several more shallow BMUS and increasing catch trends for the deepest BMUS. The time series of annual estimated catch and the methods used to generate these estimates presented in this report may be used in future benchmark stock assessments of the Guam BMUS.

The Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) of NOAA Fisheries uses the NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-PIFSC series to distribute scientific and technical information that has been scientifically reviewed and edited. Documents within this series reflect sound professional work and may be referenced in the formal scientific and technical literature. 

Matthews T, Bohaboy EB 2024. Catch of Bottomfish Management Unit Species of Guam, 1982-2023 U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-167, 33 p.
https://doi.org/10.25923/s74d-ck30