Download FAR 2024/34 Catch per unit effort analyses and fisheries characterisation for BCO 5 from 1990 to 2023

This report provides an update of the characterisation and catch per unit effort (CPUE) analysis for the BCO 5 blue cod fishery up to 2022–23 fishing year. Most of the BCO 5 landings have historically been taken from Statistical Areas 025, 027, 030, and 029 which contributed 50%, 21% 20 %, and 6% of the catch respectively, over the last 34-years. The landings from 025 declined steadily from 2006 onward, and in 2022–23 they dropped to 34% of BCO 5 landings. Landings from 027, 029, and 030 fluctuated but there was no clear trend. Generalised Linear Models (GLM) were run for Statistical Areas 025, 027, 027+029, and 030, for these areas combined, and the combined areas weighted by area of blue cod habitat. There were some differences in the trends for the individual area CPUE models, but in general indices (which we assume are proportional to abundance) increased steeply from 1995 to 2002, declined gradually until 2019, and then increased over the last three years before dropping in 2023 to a level slightly above that in the first few years of the time series.