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Stock Assessments

Photo: NOAA Fisheries

Main Hawaiian Islands Deep 7 Bottomfish

The Hawaiian “Deep 7” bottomfish complex is comprised of six snapper and one grouper species: opakapaka (pink snapper), onaga (longtail snapper), ehu (squirrelfish snapper), kalekale (Von Siebold’s snapper), gindai (Brigham’s snapper), lehi (silverjaw snapper), and hapu’upu’u (Hawaiian grouper). These seven species are found around the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) in waters of 100-400 m depth.

The Deep 7 species have historical cultural significance in Hawaiian tradition and today they comprise a significant part of the domestic commercial catch, with reported catches ranging from about 200,000 lbs to 300,000 lbs per year. Although the efficiency of the modern fishery has likely improved through time, the current Hawaii bottomfish fishery still uses traditional deep handline capture methods for commercial and recreational harvest. The stock is jointly managed by the from the State of Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) and NOAA.

The latest benchmark assessment was developed in 2018 and updated in 2021. The 2018 benchmark assessment was the first instance of incorporating data from the annual Bottomfish Fishery-Independent Survey into the stock assessment model. The assessment used a Bayesian surplus production model that fit annual biomass estimates to bottomfish catch and effort data (CPUE) and commercial catch reports for fishing years 1949-2015 in addition to fishery-independent survey data for fishing year 2017. The 2021 assessment update used the same Bayesian surplus production model with three additional years of data for each data source.

2018

2021