Workshop on guidelines and methods for the evaluation of rebuilding plans (WKREBUILD)

• Main Authors: Kempf, Alexander, Benson, Ashleen, Beauchamp, Brittany, Pinto, Cecilia, Sparrevohn, Claus Reedtz, Lordan, Colm, Miller, David, van Helmond, Edwin, Mosegaard, Henrik, Benoít, Hugues, Coull, Kenny, Wise, Laura, Payne, Mark, Pastoors, Martin, Gras, Michael, Wall Andersen, Michael, Campbell, Neil, MacDonald, Paul, Levontin, Polina, Döring, Ralf, Methot, Richard D., Millar, Sarah, Mackinson, Steven, Gröhsler, Tomas, Bartolino, Valerio, Trijoulet, Vanessa, Ye, Yimin
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) 2020
• Subjects: Canada; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/aade90f4-2694-4e9a-b4ee-b0cc7d380071; https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.6085; https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/234636333/WKREBUILD_2020.pdf

The Workshop on guidelines and methods for the evaluation of rebuilding plans (WKREBUILD) chaired by Vanessa Trijoulet (Denmark) and Martin Pastoors (Netherlands) met from 24 to 28 February 2020. The workshop attracted 27 participants from the US, Canada, Europe and FAO. When stocks are estimated to be below B lim 1 and there is no perceived possibility of rebuilding above Blim within the time-frame of a short-term forecast, ICES has regularly recommended zero catch in combination with the development of a rebuilding plan. A review was carried out on the international experience on the development, evaluation and implementation of rebuilding plans for fisheries management in the Northeast Atlantic and in other fora around the world. In the Northeast Atlantic, rebuilding plans have been implemented in the past (e.g. the cod recovery plans of the early 2000s) but ICES has played a limited role in evaluating the performance of such recovery plans and does not have the tools or criteria to evaluate such plans. Recently, when a rebuilding plan for herring in 6.a 7.bc was submitted to ICES for evaluation, ICES refrained from providing such an evaluation. In the US and Canadian approaches, the legal framework determines the triggering and required elements of rebuilding plans. Such a legal imperative does not exist in the Northeast Atlantic. Nevertheless, the US and Canadian experiences provided useful elements that could be included in establishing ICES approach to rebuilding plans. Several case studies were presented on potential tools for the evaluation of rebuilding plans. Particular attention was given to evaluating options for harvest control rule options of such a plan. The tools focused mostly on short to medium term explorations of the probability of achieving a rebuilding of stocks. Because rebuilding plan evaluations need to be ready and available at short-notice when required, it was concluded that relatively standardized tools (i.e. packages or compiled code) to carry out such evaluations would be ...