Benchmark Workshop for selected elasmobranch stocks (WKELASMO) ...

• Main Author: ICES
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: ICES Scientific Reports 2024
• Subjects: Fisheries and aquaculture; Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast ICES Ecoregion; Atlantic, Northeast ICES Ecoregion; FAO area 27; Celtic Seas ICES Ecoregion; Northeast Atlantic; Porbeagle
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.21025021; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/report/Benchmark_Workshop_for_selected_elasmobranch_stocks_WKELASMO_/21025021

A Benchmark Workshop for selected elasmobranch stocks (WKELASMO) was convened to evaluate the appropriateness of data and methods to assess and provide short-term forecast of four stocks: Porbeagle in the Northeast Atlantic (por.27.nea), thornback ray in the Bay of Biscay (rjc.27.8), undulate ray in the Channel (rju.27.7de), and cuckoo ray in western waters (rjn.27.678abd). For porbeagle in the Northeast Atlantic , the workshop (and the reviewers from the stock identity working group (SIMWG)) considered that there is not enough evidence to split the stock despite genetic analysis and mark-recapture data indicating a possibility of two components. A SPiCT assessment using reported landings since 1926, three commercial indices and one reconstructed survey, was accepted and the forecast settings agreed, leading the stock into category 2 . The stock is estimated to be harvested largely below FMSY (F/FMSY = 0.02), and the biomass, while increasing, remains below MSY-Btrigger (B/BMSY = 0.43). The 35th percentile ...