The TAC fallacy ...

• Main Author: Hoydal, Kjartan
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2011 - Theme session P 2024
• Subjects: The sea and human culture and societies; Pressures, impacts, conservation, and management; Tac; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25039376; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/The_TAC_fallacy/25039376

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.ICES has been the provider of scientific advice for decades on how to control fishing mortality to national management authorities and regional management organizations in the Northeast Atlantic. Overwhelmingly, management authorities have requested annual advice on catch levels—total allowable catches (TACs)—that will keep fishing mortality at sustainable levels. Single‐stock TACs have been used for all fisheries, from clean, single‐species fisheries for pelagic, schooling species to mixed multispecies multifleet bottom fisheries. Experience shows that it is a very difficult job to estimate the TAC corresponding to an agreed level of fishing mortality with any accuracy. The advice has been delivered in a set‐piece, where the advice is given “ex‐cathedra” without the possibility for dialogue between the ICES advisory bodies and managers on the factual advice for a given year. Problems in implementation and control and enforcement have been ...