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Celtic Sea and VIIj herring

Main characteristics and peculiarities
• stock consists probably of two separate components (a winter and an autumn spawning component), but timing of spawning appears to have changed during the last decades.
• some of the distinct inshore spawning beds are threatened by human activities (gravel extraction etc)
• assessment year from 1st April to 31st March, but TAC set on an annual basis

Assessment Summary
year	2000 (WG 2001)
type	single species: Integrated Catch Analysis
assessment quality
main problems	sudden change in perception of the stock due to an unusual high occurrence of young fish; this problem will be investigated during summer 2001 (1) acoustic survey does not cover the whole stock
fisheries independent information	(1) hydroacoustic survey (2) gear surveys
catch	17'200 t (1999: 17'000 t)
spawning stock biomass	35'000 t (1999: 73'200 t)
fishing mortality	F(adults [2-7])=0.94 (1999: 0.34)
reference points	Bpa: 44'000 t, Blim: 26'000 t, Fpa: not defined
state of the stock	probably within safe biological limits (SSB well above Bpa)
perspective	stock parameters rather stable, F decreased in recent years

Stock parameters (under construction)

This standard figure can be downloaded as a printable pdf-file (requires Acrobat Reader)

Distribution
Celtic Sea and VIIj herring is distributed in ICES Areas VIIa(South), VIIg-k. A portion of the juveniles can be found in adjacent areas (VIIaN, possibly VIIb).

Management advice
Advice for 2002 will be produced in Autumn 2001.

Source
ICES Working Group for the assessment of Herring South of 62°N 2000, ICES CM 2000/ACFM:10, and 2001, ICES CM 2001/ACFM:12

Data entered/updated by (Date)
Christopher Zimmermann (01-07-00/27-06-01)

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