SAITHE Pollachius virens
Publication of Advice: 7 June 2024. Published by Marine and Freshwater Institute.
Advice
MFRI and ICES advise that when the Icelandic management plan is applied, catches in the fishing year 2024/2025 should be no more than 66 705 tonnes.
Stock development
Fishing pressure is below HRMGT, HRMSY, HRpa, and HRlim. Spawning stock size is above MSY Btrigger, Bpa, and Blim.
Saithe. Catch by gear type, recruitment, harvest rate based on reference stock biomass, reference stock biomass (4 years and older) and spawning stock biomass (SSB). Shaded areas and error bars show 95% confidence intervals.
Basis of the assessment and Reference points
Prospects
Saithe. Assumptions made for the interim year and in the forecast.
Saithe. Projection of reference biomass and SSB (tonnes) based on adopted harvest control rule.
Quality of the assessment
The combination of uncertain survey indices and time-varying fleet selectivity can lead to periods where retrospective stock size revisions are large.
Saithe Current assessment (red line) compared with previous estimates (2020–2023).
Other information
The trend for the last five years has been overestimation of the reference biomass, caused by high survey indices in 2018 followed by a substantial decrease from 2019–2022. The evaluation of the management plan incorporated uncertainties of this nature and of a similar magnitude (ICES, 2019). The catch has been less than the TAC since 2013. Part of the unused TAC has been used to fish for other species, under the Icelandic quota management system which allows limited transfer between species. This may, however, be contributing to the advice and TACs being exceeded for some species.
Advice, TAC and catch
Saithe. Recommended TAC, national TAC, and catches (tonnes).
References and further reading
ICES. 2019. Workshop on the benchmark assessment and management plan evaluation for Icelandic haddock and saithe (WKICEMSE). ICES Scientific Reports. 1:10. 107 pp. http://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.5091
MFRI Assessment Reports 2024. Saithe. Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, 7 June 2024