Fishing at reference points derived from average conditions or with YPR or SPR based reference points when RPS was low resulted in rapid population decline. The periods of low RPS observed here in both populations was long enough to result in substantial population decline and even collapse. The level of constant fishing mortality that would ensure that the populations would not decline under low productivity conditions would be so low as to result in a large loss of yield if applied to all time periods, implying that target fishing mortality should be adjusted between low and higher productivity periods. We propose that this be done by applying recent average data in the computation of fishing mortality target and limit reference points. Estimates of weight and maturity at age and recruitment need to be compared to those being used to calculate current reference points to determine if their variation warrants updating of the reference points (Brooks, 2013).