At the request of NOAA Fisheries (NOAA), this is the ISAB's reply to the response of the COMPASS team (detailed in Dr. Rich Zabel's PowerPoint presentation to the ISAB on June 30, 2006) to the ISAB's initial COMPASS Model review (ISAB 2006-2).
The points at issue for both the ISAB's report and for NOAA's response were largely confined to statistical usage, over which there remained some differences of opinion that needed further discussion and resolution. Several model team members also responded to Dr. Zabel (letter of May 22, 2006 from the CRITFC, IDFG, ODFW, and USFWS model team members) with the ISAB's review in hand, and raised many of the same concerns, as well as some additional concerns. CRITFC forwarded this letter to the ISAB and requested that we consider the other team members' comments in developing this memo.
In sum, the ISAB is encouraged by the efforts of the COMPASS team to date, and the ISAB hopes its comments will further the team's discussions and development of the model.
