Joint CPUE standardization of the Pacific saury in the Northwest Pacific Ocean during 2001 - 2020 using the Vector-Autoregressive Spatiotemporal Model

Reliable indices of population abundance are an important type of data for stock assessment. We applied a Vector-Autoregressive Spatio-Temporal Model (VAST) to conduct index standardization update by using the joint CPUE (catch-per-unit-effort) data of the Pacific saury in the Northwest Pacific Ocean during 2001 and 2020. The results indicated that the annual standardized CPUE trend had a fluctuated pattern over studied periods, and the annual standardized CPUE value was at the lowest level below average (2001 - 2020) in 2020.