An updated assessment of the toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) resource in the Prince Edward Islands vicinity and extension taking commercial catch-at-length data into account

The CPUE-based Age-Structured Production Model (ASPM) assessment of this resource by Brandão et al. (2001) is updated to take account of further catch and effort data that have become available over the past year. This leads to an improved picture of resource status compared to a year previously, but a spawning biomass nevertheless still estimated to be heavily depleted and at a level of only a few percent of its average pre-exploitation abundance. However, predictions from this assessment are at variance with the observed length frequency distributions for the fishery. It is important that the assessment model be refined to provide a consistent explanation of all the available data, as this might not only alter perceptions of the status of the Prince Edward Island resource, but also have important consequences for the assessments of other populations of toothfish in the CCAMLR region.