A Bayesian state-space production model for Korean chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) stock

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to fit catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) data about Korea chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) stock with a state-space production (SSP) model, and to provide stock assessment results. We chose a surplus production model for the chub mackerel data, namely annual yield and CPUE. Then we employed a state-space layer for a production model to consider two sources of variability arising from unmodelled factors (process error) and noise in the data (observation error). We implemented the model via script software ADMB-RE because it reduces the computational cost of high-dimensional integration and provides Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling, which is required for Bayesian approaches. To stabilize the numerical optimization, we considered prior distributions for model parameters. Applying the SSP model to data collected from commercial fisheries from 1999 to 2017, we estimated model parameters and management references, as well as uncertainties for the estimates. We also applied various production models and showed parameter estimates and goodness of fit statistics to compare the model performance. This study presents two significant findings. First, we concluded that the stock has been overexploited in terms of harvest rate from 1999 to 2017. Second, we suggest a SSP model for the smallest goodness of fit statistics among several production models, especially for fitting CPUE data with fluctuations.