NORWEGIAN SPRING-SPAWNING HERRING Clupea harengus

Advice 2025

401 794

tonnes

Advice 2024

390 010

tonnes

Advice change

3 %

Publication of Advice: 30. september 2024. Published by Marine and Freshwater Research Institute.


Advice

ICES advises that when the long-term management strategy agreed by the European Union, the UK, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, and the Russian Federation is applied, catches in 2025 should be no more than 401 794 tonnes.

Stofnþróun

Fishing pressure on the stock is above FMSY and between Fpa and Flim, and spawning-stock size is below MSY Btrigger and Bpa, and above Blim.

0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 Thous. tonnes I c e l a n d O t h e r s n a t i o n s Catches 0 30 60 90 120 150 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016 2021 Millions R e c r u i t m e n t ( a g e 2 ) F M S Y F M G T F l i m 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 2021 F ( a g e s 5 − 12 ) Fishing mortality B p a M S Y B t r i g g e r B l i m 0 2 4 6 8 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 2021 Thous. tonnes SSB

Norwegian spring-spawning herring. Catch by Iceland and others, recruitment, fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass (SSB). Shaded areas and error bars show 95% confidence intervals.

Basis of assessement and reference points

Prospects

Norwegian spring-spawning herring. Assumptions made for the interim year and in the forecast.

Norwegian spring-spawning herring. Annual catch scenarios. All weights are in tonnes.

The advice for 2025 increases slightly compared to 2024 since the incoming year classes (2021 and 2022) are estimated to be stronger than average, and the 2016 year class is revised upwards.

Quality of the Assessement

The estimated SSB and fishing mortality are consistent with the estimates from last year’s assessment. The 2016 year class has been revised upward over the last years.

The estimated recruitment in 2024 is now taken from the assessment model. Last year the geometric mean was used. The reason for this change is that the abundance of age 2 was available from the 2024 Barents Sea survey (which had reduced coverage compared to previous years).

F M S Y F l i m F p a B l i m B p a M S Y B t r i g g e r F i s h i n g m o r t a l i t y R e c r u i t m e n t S S B 2012 2016 2020 2024 2012 2016 2020 2024 2012 2016 2020 2024 0 2 4 6 0 10 20 30 40 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3

Norwegian spring-spawning herring. Current assessment (red line) compared with previous estimates (2020–2023).

Other Information

There has been an overshoot of the catches in relation to the advised TAC since 2013. The advice is based on the target fishing mortality in the long-term management strategy agreed by the European Union, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, and the Russian Federation; it does not consider the deviations from the long-term management strategy as evident from the sum of declared unilateral quotas. During the evaluation of the long-term management strategy (ICES, 2018a), the implementation error in the form of a consistent overshoot of the TAC was not included. Therefore, failing to adhere to the advised catches as derived from the application of the long-term management strategy may not be precautionary. Specifically, this may result in an increased risk for the stock to fall below Blim and loss of catch in the long term.

Advice, TAC and Catch

Norwegian spring-spawning herring. Recommended TAC, national TAC, and catches (tonnes).

References and further reading

Anon. 2018. Agreed record of conclusions of fisheries consultations between Iceland, the European Union, the Faroe Islands, Norway and the Russian Federation on the management of the Norwegian spring-spawning (Atlanto-Scandian) herring stock in the North-East Atlantic in 2019. London, 6 November 2018. 6 pp. see here

Anon. 2020. Agreed record of conclusions of fisheries consultations between Norway, the European Union, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom on the management of the Norwegian spring-spawning (Atlanto-Scandian) herring in the North-East Atlantic in 2021. Video-conference, 20-21 October 2020. 7 pp. see here

ICES. 2016. Report of the Benchmark Workshop on Pelagic Stocks (WKPELA), 29 February–4 March 2016, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2016/ACOM:34. 106 pp. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.5581

ICES. 2018a. Report of the Workshop on a long-term management strategy for Norwegian Spring-spawning herring (WKNSSHMSE), 26–27 August 2018, Torshavn, Faroe Islands. ICES CM 2018/ACOM:53. 113 pp. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.5583.

ICES. 2018b. Report of the Workshop on the determination of reference points for Norwegian Spring Spawning Herring (WKNSSHREF), 10–11 April 2018, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2018/ACOM:45. 83 pp. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.5582

ICES. 2024. Herring (Clupea harengus) in subareas 1, 2, 5 and divisions 4.a and 14.a, Norwegian spring-spawning herring (the Northeast Atlantic and Arctic Ocean). In Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, 2024. ICES Advice 2024, her.27.1-24a514a. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.advice.25019270

ICES. 2024. Working Group on Widely Distributed Stocks (WGWIDE). ICES Scientific Reports. 6:81. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.26993227

MFRI Assessment Reports 2024. NORWEGIAN SPRING-SPAWNING HERRING. Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, 30. September 2024.