Progress report on application of the VAST model in CPUE standardization for the Japanese fishery of Pacific saury

Vector Autoregressive Spatio-temporal (VAST) model was applied to the catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) data of Pacific saury caught by the Japanese stick-held dip net fishery. Here, models with seasonal effects instead of monthly effects were also considered in model selection. The standardized CPUE derived from the selected VAST model with minimum AIC indicated similar year trends with that derived from the conventional method with the generalized linear model. Evaluations of the impacts of the shortened fishing season revealed that the year trends of standardized CPUE from the VAST model were at least robust to missing data at the late stage of the Japanese fishing season.