NAFO Sci. Coun. Studies, 34:19-83

The Scientific Council at its meeting in June 1990 agreed to compile an inventory and information on research vessel surveys conducted with respect to stocks assessed by the Scientific Council (SCS Doc. 90/22). This inventory was judged to be a useful reference and very helpful for the establishment of other inventories. During its meeting in June 1991 the Council agreed that the Designated Experts for the stocks should update the information annually (NAFO Sci. Coun. Rep., 1991, p. 37) for review by STACFIS. In 1991 and the subsequent years through the decade, the inventory has been compiled annually and presented to the Scientific Council in the form of Scientific Council Summary Documents (SCS Doc.) (SCS Doc. 91/8, 92/22, 93/18, 94/18, 95/17, 96/15, 97/13, 98/18, 00/28).

A review of the annual inventories showed that there often were revisions and updates from one year to the next, and consequently readers of the SCS Document series may experience difficulties in interpreting the information. The Secretariat therefore took the initiative to compile a decadal publication. Noting this represented the best interpretation of the available information, Designated Experts responsible for stock assessments were requested to verify the accuracy of this compilation.

The following tabulations were compiled by the Secretariat in order to provide a comprehensive overview of surveys during the 1990-2000 decade used for stock assessments by the Scientific Council. Information supplied in the SCS Documents mentioned above were collated and edited as needed, and the SCR Documents cited in them were checked and corrections made to the tables when necessary.

In a few cases, the information supplied by the Designated Experts in the document series was not clear and document citations were not listed. In such cases the best representative interpretations by the Secretariat are presented in these Tables. It was also noted data on different stocks were collected in the same surveys but often the surveys were not referred to in a consistent way. These were re-tabulated to achieve best consistency.

This paper is compiled in the format designed by the Scientific Council in 1990s. Stock-by-Stock tabulations are listed with the northernmost stock first and progress southward from Subarea 0 to 4. The following is the sequence of presentation:

Greenland halibut in Subarea 0 + Divisions 1B-1F
Greenland halibut in Division 1A
Roundnose grenadier in Subareas 0 and 1
Cod in Subarea 1
Redfish in Subarea 1
Other Finfish in Subarea 1
Cod in Division 3M
Redfish in Division 3M
American plaice in Division 3M
Cod in Divisions 3N and 3O
Redfish in Divisions 3L and 3N
American plaice in Divisions 3L, 3N and 3O
Yellowtail flounder in Divisions 3L, 3N and 3O
Witch flounder in Divisions 3N and 3O
Capelin in Divisions 3N and 3O
Groundfish (Cod in Subdivision 3Ps)
Roundnose grenadier in Subareas 2 and 3
Roughhead grenadier in Subareas 2 and 3
Cod in Divisions 2J, 3K and 3L
Witch flounder in Divisions 2J + 3KL
Greenland halibut in Subarea 2 and Divisions 3K and 3L
Short-finned Squid in Subareas 3 and 4
Silver hake in Divisions 4V, 4W and 4X
Elasmobranchs in Subareas 2-6
Short-finned Squid in Subareas 5 and 6
Shrimp in Divisions 3LNO
Shrimp in Division 3M
Shrimp in Subareas 0 and 1
Shrimp in Denmark Strait

References to pertinent documents are noted in the tables and a complete list of documents cited is listed at the end.