ANNUAL STOCK ASSESSMENT AND FISHERY EVALUATION REPORT: MARIANA ARCHIPELAGO FISHERY ECOSYSTEM PLAN 2019 Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council 1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400 Honolulu, HI 96813 PHONE: (808) 522-8220 FAX: (808) 522-8226 www.wpcouncil.org The ANNUAL STOCK ASSESSMENT AND FISHERY EVALUATION REPORT for the MARIANA ARCHIPELAGO FISHERY ECOSYSTEM PLAN 2019 was drafted by the Fishery Ecosystem Plan Team. This is a collaborative effort primarily between the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), Division of Aquatic Resources (HI,) Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (American Samoa), Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources (Guam), and Division of Fish and Wildlife (CNMI). This report attempts to summarize annual fishery performance looking at trends in catch, effort and catch rates as well as provide a source document describing various projects and activities being undertaken on a local and federal level. The report also describes several ecosystem considerations, including fish biomass estimates, biological indicators, protected species, habitat, climate change, and human dimensions. Information like marine spatial planning and best scientific information available for each fishery are described. This report provides a summary of annual catches relative to the Annual Catch Limits established by the Council in collaboration with the local fishery management agencies. Edited By: Thomas Remington, Contractor & Marlowe Sabater and Asuka Ishizaki, WPRFMC. Cover Image: credit to James Borja This document can be cited as follows: WPRFMC, 2020. Annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Report for the Mariana Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan 2019. Remington, T., Sabater, M., Ishizaki, A. (Eds.) Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 USA. 204 pp. + Appendices. ii The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council acknowledges the valuable contributions of the following Plan Team members and others for drafting sections of this report: Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources: Brent Tibbatts. CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife: Michael Tenorio, Jude Lizama, Frank Villagomez, and William Dunn. NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center: Ivor Williams, Felipe Carvalho, Joseph O’Malley, Michael Parke, Thomas Oliver, Melanie Abecassis, Frank Parrish, T. Todd Jones, Minling Pan, Justin Hospital, and Kirsten Leong. NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office: Brett Schumacher. The Council also acknowledges the staff of the NMFS PIFSC Western Pacific Fisheries Information Network (WPacFIN) for providing the technical support to generate the data summaries. The Council would like to thank the following individual for their contributions to the report: Samuel Kahng. iii This page was intentionally left blank. iv Annual SAFE Report for the Mariana Archipelago FEP Executive Summary EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As part of its five-year fishery ecosystem plan (FEP) review, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC; the Council) identified its annual reports as a priority for improvement. The former annual reports have been revised to meet National Standard regulatory requirements for Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports. The purpose of the reports is twofold: to monitor the performance of the fishery and ecosystem to assess the effectiveness of the FEP in meeting its management objectives; and to maintain the structure of the FEP living document. The reports are comprised of three chapters: Fishery Performance, Ecosystem Considerations, and Data Integration. The Council will iteratively improve the annual SAFE report as resources allow. The Fishery Performance chapter of this report first presents a general description of the local fisheries within the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam, focusing on the management unit species (MUS), particularly bottomfish MUS (BMUS), accompanied by monitoring of ecosystem component species (ECS). The fishery data collection system is explained, encompassing boat-based creel surveys and commercial receipt books. Fishery meta- statistics for BMUS and ECS are organized into summary dashboard tables showcasing the values for the most recent fishing year and a comparison to short-term (10-year) and long-term (20-year) averages. Time series for catch and effort statistics are also provided along with annual catch limit (ACL) determinations. For 2019 in CNMI, there were no instances of MUS exceeding their ACL because the only remaining MUS is the bottomfish multi-species complex, which did not have an ACL specified in 2019 due to the new benchmark stock assessment (Langseth et al., 2019) that was determined to be the best scientific information available. This was similar for Guam in 2019, as there was no ACL specified for the BMUS complex. While there used to be coral reef ecosystem management unit species (CREMUS) and crustacean management unit species (CMUS) that were actively managed using ACLs, an amendment to the Mariana Archipelago FEP in early 2019 reclassified most of the MUS as ECS except for bottomfish. ECS do not require ACL specifications or accountability measures but are still to be monitored regularly in the annual SAFE report through a one-year snapshot of the ten most caught ECS, complete catch time series of prioritized ECS as selected by Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources (DAWR) and CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), as well as trophic and functional group biomass estimates from fishery independent surveys. Other existing management measures still apply to ECS. In CNMI, BMUS catch decreased notably in 2019 to 21,012 pounds, a 45% decrease from the 10-year average and a 44% decrease from the 20-year average. BMUS catch from commercial purchase data in 2019, however, showed increases of 21% and 6% relative to the short- and long- term trends at 15,697 lbs. CPUE for BMUS harvested by the bottomfishing handline gear decreased for both metrics presented, pounds per trip and pounds per gear hour. There were 23 lbs./trip of BMUS harvested by bottomfishing (56% and 41% decreases from the 10- and 20-year averages, respectively), and approximately 2.42 lbs./gear hour of BMUS harvested by bottomfishing (43% and 22% decreases from the short- and long-term averages, respectively). The total estimated number of bottomfishing trips that harvested BMUS was just nine in 2019, a 50% decrease from the 10-year average and 68% decrease from the 20-year average. The v Annual SAFE Report for the Mariana Archipelago FEP Executive Summary estimated number of bottomfishing gear hours was 85 (78% and 81% decreases from short- and long-term trends, respectively). Bottomfishing participants also decreased in 2019, with an estimated eight unique vessels and the average number of fishermen per trip falling to just two. There was no recorded bycatch in 2019. For the top ten landed ECS in CNMI in 2019, available data streams showed that the “surgeonfish” group had the most catch in the creel survey data, while “assorted reef fish” had the most catch in commercial data. The second most caught species was parrotfish for both the creel survey data and the commercial purchase data. Several other species had notable catch estimates in the creel survey data, including Seriola dumerili and Epibulus insidiator. Most of the remainder of the top ten ECS from commercial purchase data were family groups (e.g., Acanthuridae) due to how the species are organized during data collection. For prioritized ECS (i.e., those selected by DFW) in CNMI, creel survey catch estimates for five of the seven species were zero in 2019. Naso lituratus and Lethrinus harak were the only two species with catch recorded in the boat-based creel surveys for the year. There were species codes for just six of the seven prioritized ECS species in CNMI commercial purchase data, as Scarus ghobban does not get actively recorded. In the data for the six available species, commercial purchase showed catches of zero for four species. Only Naso lituratus and Siganus argenteus had commercial data reported in 2019, both of which were lower than their 10-year and 20-year averages. For the BMUS fishery in Guam in 2019, total estimated BMUS catch was 37,702 lbs., a 46% increase relative to the recent 10-year average and a 29% increase compared to the recent 20- year average. No commercial catch trends were reported due to issues with data confidentiality (i.e., less than three vendors reporting data). CPUE for BMUS harvested by the bottomfishing handline gear was presenting using two metrics in the 2019 report, pounds per trip and pounds per gear hour. There was 19 pounds of BMUS caught per trip in Guam in 2019, a 12% increase from the recent 10-year average and consistent with the 20-year average. CPUE in pounds per gear hour was 1.4505 for BMUS harvested with the bottomfishing handline gear, which coincided with decreases relative to the recent 10- and 20-year averages (27% and 14%, respectively). The total estimated number of fishing trips bottomfishing trips that harvested BMUS increased by 36% compared with the 10-year average to 76 trips, which also represented a 21% increase relative to the 20-year average. The number of bottomfishing gear hours on trips that harvested BMUS was 1,016, consistent with the 10-year average and a 2% increase to the 20-year average. The total estimated number of unique vessels harvested BMUS in Guam was 52, an increase to both the 10- and 20-year averages by 27% and 13%, respectively. The average number of fishers per trip was 3, which was consistent with the both the historical averages. Bycatch slightly increased in 2019 relative to the 10-year average but decreased compared to the 20-year average; this is due to the low amount of bycatch over recent years, as the number individual fish released was three (representing a bycatch rate of 0.35%). For the top ten landed ECS in Guam in 2019, available data showed that “assorted reef fish” had the most catch in both the creel survey and commercial purchase data.