Data deliveries and quality checks

Fishery

Finalize 2025 retained catch and discard estimates by fleet and gear.
Add the 2025 fishery age composition and document the source sample sizes used in the likelihood.
Add the final 2025 fishery length composition and verify the age-length keys used to produce the age data.
Add the latest available 2026 catch and length information, and document the method used for the full-year 2026 catch estimate.
Update Russian catch through the latest available year and record any estimate used for an incomplete year.
Reconcile catch totals among the assessment workbook, catch accounting source, figures, and projection inputs.

Bottom-trawl survey (BTS)

Add the final 2026 BTS biomass estimate and its standard error.
Add the 2026 BTS age composition for ages 1–15 and retain the intended sample size for the composition likelihood.
Add the 2026 BTS length composition and confirm agreement with the age data and survey total.
Verify the separate ages 2–15 total-numbers quantity used for BTS composition scaling.
Review survey timing, spatial coverage, and any 2026 field or processing notes that affect interpretation.

Acoustic-trawl survey (ATS)

Add the final 2026 ATS biomass estimate and its standard error.
Add the 2026 ATS age composition for ages 2–15; keep age 1 in its separate abundance-index series.
Add the 2026 ATS age-1 abundance estimate and uncertainty.
Add the 2026 ATS length composition and confirm agreement with the age data and survey total.
Verify that ATS composition plots, residuals, and sample-size summaries all use the same active ages and sampling years.

Other indices and biological inputs

Add the 2026 acoustic vessel-of-opportunity (AVO) estimate and uncertainty when the final product is available.
Confirm whether the historical CPUE series remains unchanged and record that decision in the input notes.
Update weight-at-age, maturity, natural mortality, ageing error, and other biological schedules when a new accepted value is available.
Update environmental and ecosystem indicators used in the assessment or ecosystem and socioeconomic profile, with source dates and units.
Record any FT-NIRS age-validation or genetics results used in the 2026 assessment.

Assessment inputs and model runs

Extend the common assessment input workbook through 2026 and archive a read-only copy with source dates, checksums, and a change log.
Confirm years, ages, units, fleet names, missing-value codes, and sample sizes after translation to ADMB and RCeattle.
Rebuild the Model 23.0 accepted-model update and the Model 23.2 ADMB-to-RCeattle translation check from the same data snapshot.
Fit Model 26.0 with RCeattle 5.23.0, or document the reviewed replacement version and commit used for the final run.
Confirm convergence, a positive-definite Hessian, gradients, parameter bounds, and consistency among saved results and report tables.
Compare spawning biomass, recruitment, total biomass, fishing mortality, selectivity, index fits, and age-composition fits across the bridge models.

Diagnostics and sensitivities

Run afscOSA diagnostics for fishery, BTS, and ATS compositions using the likelihood sample sizes and the active age ranges.
Run dispersed-start jitter tests and simulated-data self tests.
Evaluate removal of the complete BTS, ATS, and AVO index series.
Run retrospective peels with the established stream-specific data lags and evaluate sensitivity to the data added in each terminal year.
Review observation continuity and sampling-event case-deletion influence.
Run and archive posterior sampling diagnostics when SparseNUTS results are included in the assessment.
Keep exploratory DSEM recruitment pathways separate from the base model and identify the observations and settings used in each test.

Status, reference points, and projections

Update the stock-status quantities and Tier 3 reference points from the final accepted assessment run.
Prepare the 2027 and 2028 ABC and OFL alternatives with spmR, using the reviewed catch assumptions and the final model-to-projection handoff.
Verify projected catch, SSB, ABC, and OFL values against the saved spmR output and round report tables consistently.
Document the recruitment assumptions and any alternative harvest scenarios presented for review.

Report and review package

Update the Summary, Data, Model specifications, Model results, Diagnostics, Projections, and Conclusion sections with the final 2026 results.
Describe every table and figure in the surrounding text and keep the explanatory paragraphs together within each subsection.
Update responses to Plan Team and SSC comments, with supporting analyses linked to the applicable section or appendix.
Check section, table, figure, equation, appendix, and literature cross-references in HTML and PDF.
Verify title-page authorship, suggested citation, draft disclaimer, headers, footers, page numbers, links, alt text, and acronym definitions.
Archive the final input snapshot, model executables or package commit, run scripts, compact output tables, HTML, and PDF used for review.
Confirm the deployed public page after the repository update completes.

The checklist uses the site-wide left navigation so the September development report, this preparation page, and the 2025 activity record remain available from the same menu.