B. Assessment for Atlantic Sea Scallops

1. Characterize the commercial catch, effort and CPUE, including descriptions of landings and discards of that species. 2. Estimate fishing mortality, spawning stock biomass, and total stock biomass for the current year and characterize the uncertainty of those estimates. If possible, also include estimates for earlier years. 3. Either update or redefine biological reference points (BRPs; proxies for BMSY and FMSY), as appropriate. Comment on the scientific adequacy of existing and redefined BRPs. 4. Evaluate current stock status with respect to the existing BRPs, as well as with respect to updated or redefined BRPs (from TOR 3). 5. Recommend modeling approaches and data to use for conducting single and multi-year stock projections, and for computing TACs or TALs. 6. If possible, a. provide numerical examples of short term projections (2-3 years) of biomass and fishing mortality rate, and characterize their uncertainty, under various TAC/F strategies and b. compare projected stock status to existing rebuilding or recovery schedules, as appropriate. 7. Review, evaluate and report on the status of the SARC/Working Group Research Recommendations offered in recent SARC reviewed assessments.