Summary: | An assessment of the cod stock in NAFO Division 3M is performed. A Bayesian model, as used in the two last assessments, was used to perform the analysis. Results indicate a fairly substantial increase in SSB, reaching a value well above Blim. The six-years retrospective plot shows that the recruitment is overestimated every year. Three year projections indicate that fishing at the Fbar level currently estimated for 2009 should allow SSB to increase, although abundance will remain at lower levels. If the fishing mortality were return to the levels seen before 1995, stock recovery would become very improbable.
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