Determinants of temporal trends in size in vessel-based reporting in the USA Illex illecebrosus fishery

The Illex illecebrosus fishery in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean is a trawl‐based fishery. Illex illecebrosus normally lives <1 year, thus managing the fishery using a standard stock assessment approach is difficult. Real‐time management is an attractive option. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of data on size composition reported by commercial vessels for application in real‐time management in the I. illecebrosus fishery. Observations were collected from fish processors for 1996–98 and from fishing vessels directly reporting in 1999–2001. Mean size of I. illecebrosus increased more or less steadily through the fishing season in each year. Apparent growth rates, determined by evaluating the change in mean size in the catch, varied considerably between years. Apparent growth rates appear to be reasonable expressions of true growth rates because either the bulk of the squid entered the fishery at the beginning of the fishery and remained with the fishery for the duration of the season, or the squid on the outer shelf, available to the fishery, represented an emigrated portion of a larger coherent offshore population. Depth exerted only a minor influence on the size of squid caught, whereas the size–frequency varied significantly with latitude. Largest squid were caught at the southern and northern extremes of the study domain. Refrigerated seawater (RSW) trawlers consistently caught smaller squid than did freezer trawlers. The complexity of I. illecebrosus size structure revealed by this study indicates the necessity of obtaining a dispersed data set, in space, with a degree of temporal detail to elucidate trends. Such a data set is conceivably obtainable from fishing vessels reporting information as they fish providing that the sampling design addresses issues concerning the dispersion of vessels across latitude, the appropriate composition of the reporting fleet, and the collection of sufficient observations per tow to adequately resolve the range in size as well as the mean.