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WGWIDE reports on the status and considerations for management of the Northeast Atlantic mackerel, blue whiting, Western and North Sea horse mackerel, Northeast Atlantic boarfish, Norwegian spring-spawning herring, striped red mullet (subareas 6, 8, and divisions 7.a–c, e–k and 9.a), and red gurnard (subareas 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) stocks. 2024 catch advice was drafted for all eight stocks. Benchmark assessments are proposed for 2025 for mackerel, herring, and striped red mullet while both horse mackerel stocks and boarfish are scheduled to be benchmarked in 2024. Northeast Atlantic mackerel. This migratory stock is widely distributed throughout the Northeast Atlantic with significant fisheries in several ICES subareas. The assessment conducted in 2023 is an update assessment, based on the configuration agreed during the 2019 interbenchmark and incorporates updates to the commercial catch, tagging, swept-area, egg survey, and recruitment index dataseries. Advice is given based on stock reference points which were updated during a management strategy evaluation carried out in 2020. SSB has been declining since 2014 but is above MSY Btrigger in 2023. Fishing mortality has been increasing since 2016 and above FMSY since 2021. Blue whiting. This pelagic gadoid is widely distributed in the eastern part of the North Atlantic. The current assessment configuration (interbenchmark in 2016) uses preliminary catch and sampling data along with the acoustic survey data from the current year. The 2023 update assessment indicates that SSB is increasing following strong recent recruitment and is well above MSY Btrigger. Fishing mortality has been above FMSY since 2014. Norwegian spring-spawning herring. This stock is migratory, spawning along the Norwegian coast and feeding throughout much of the Norwegian Sea. The 2023 update assessment is based on an implementation of the XSAM assessment mode

WGIPS met in January 2023 to combine and review the results of the annual pelagic ecosystem surveys and provide indices for the stocks of herring, sprat, mackerel, boarfish, and blue whiting in the Northeast Atlantic, Norwegian Sea, North Sea, and Western Baltic. Timing, coverage and methodologies were assessed and coordinated for the upcoming 2023 surveys. Progression on the update of the WGIPS survey manual (SISP 9) in the TIMES format continued, with an expected first draft to be submitted in spring 2023 and the completion planned within the present WGIPS reporting cycle. The group discussed the future and development of databases used by the group (the ICES DB and the PGNAPES database). The use of StoX and progress on TAF were reviewed during a joint session with the ICES Data Centre and the StoX development team. The biological sampling strategies in WGIPS surveys continue to be discussed and progress is being made on documenting the sampling strategies used in all WGIPS surveys in the new format of the sampling manual. The planned workshop on sampling strategies in the HERAS survey has been postponed until further progress is made on data availability for analysis. WGIPS reviewed progress in using genetic stock separation methods for splitting survey results to component herring stocks and assessed ways forward for the development of these methods whilst maintaining the integrity of the survey indices. The group encourages continued close collaboration of the ICES survey and assessment groups and institutes carrying out the genetic analysis work. WGIPS continues to follow progress on mesopelagic fish sampling in the International Blue Whiting Spawning Survey (IBWSS) through updates from the Ecologically and Economically Sustainable Mesopelagic Fisheries EU project (MEESO) and other developments within this area of relevance to the WGIPS surveys.

The core objectives of the Working Group on International Pelagic Surveys (WGIPS) are to combine and review the results of annual pelagic ecosystem surveys to provide indices for the stocks of herring, sprat, mackerel, boarfish, and blue whiting in the Northeast Atlantic, Norwegian Sea, North Sea, and Western Baltic; and to coordinate timing, coverage and methodologies for the upcoming 2022 surveys. To support this work, the group is drafting an update to the Series of ICES Survey Protocols 9 - Manual for International Pelagic Surveys (SISP9-IPS). This past year, WGIPS held a number of focal sessions including: (1) a session for presenting auxiliary monitoring of ecosystem components beyond the standard fishery survey results for the target species. This session has been held annually since 2019, with presentations this year on tests with an in-trawl stereo camera system during part of the 2021 International Ecosystem Summer Survey in the Nordic Seas (IESSNS), (2) a session on the future and development of databases used to store data from surveys in WGIPS (ICES Acoustic Database and the “PGNAPES” database), developments and use of the acoustic survey analysis software “StoX” and progress on adopting the ICES Transparent Assessment Framework (TAF) for archiving and documenting acoustic index calculations, and (3) a session on biological sampling strategies in WGIPS surveys. The group is documenting the sampling strategies used in all WGIPS surveys (on request from ICES Working group on Acoustic Trawl Data Portal Governance (WGAcousticGov) and is planning a workshop on sampling strategies in the ICES Coordinated Acoustic Survey in the Skagerrak and Kattegat, the North Sea, West of Scotland and the Malin Shelf area (HERAS). The group also reviewed progress on mesopelagic sampling with an update from the European Union Horizon 2020-programme on Ecologically and Economically Sustainable Mesopelagic Fisheries (MEESO), presentations on new net developmen

The Atlantic herring Clupea harengus L has a vast geographical distribution and a complex population structure with a few very large migratory units and many small local populations. Each population has its own spawning ground and/or time, thereby maintaining their genetic integrity. Several herring populations migrate between common feeding grounds and over-wintering areas resulting in frequent mixing of populations. Thus, many herring fisheries are based on mixed populations of different demographic status. In order to avoid overexploitation of weak populations and to conserve biodiversity, understanding the population structure and population mixing is important for maintaining biologically sustainable herring fisheries. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic population structure of herring in the Faroese and surrounding waters, and to develop genetic markers for distinguishing between four herring management units (often called stocks), namely the Norwegian spring-spawning herring (NSSH), Icelandic summer-spawning herring (ISSH), North Sea autumn-spawning herring (NSAH), and Faroese autumn-spawning herring (FASH). Herring from the four stocks were sequenced at low coverage, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were called and used for population structure analysis and individual assignment. An ancestry-informative SNP panel with 118 SNPs was developed and tested on 240 individuals. The results showed that all four stocks appeared to be genetically differentiated populations, but at lower levels of differentiation between FASH and ISSH than the other two populations. Overall assignment rate with the SNP panel was 80.7%, and agreement between the genetic and traditional visual assignment was 75.5%. The NSAH and NSSH samples had the highest assignment rate (100% and 98.3%, respectively) and highest agreement between traditional and genetic assignment methods (96.6% and 94.9%, respectively). The FASH and ISSH samples had substantially lowe

The core objectives of The Working Group of International Pelagic Surveys (WGIPS) are to combine and review results of annual pelagic ecosystem surveys to provide indices for the stocks of herring, sprat, mackerel, boarfish, and blue whiting in the Northeast Atlantic, Norwegian Sea, North Sea, and Western Baltic; and to coordinate timing, coverage and methodologies for upcoming surveys. Results from all WGIPS surveys as well as coordination plans for multinational pelagic acoustic surveys and individual surveys were the primary focus at meetings over the past 3 years (2019-2021). WGIPS discussed developments and experiences with the ICES database and the survey analysis software StoX. WGIPS recommends that all surveys use StoX as the primary method for biomass and abundance estimation, and this has been a welcome improvement in the overall working of the group for the surveys that use StoX. Harmonising procedures across surveys increases transparency and promotes understanding and sharing of survey methods within the group. In 2021, a session was held to begin the process of moving surveys onto the Transparent Assessment Framework (TAF). Some surveys had started the TAF process before the meeting and their pro- gress was presented to the group. WGIPS will work with the ICES Data Centre to produce aworkflow and/or documentation to assist with the transition to TAF. Harmonising surveying techniques that measure other aspects of the marine ecosystem has been flagged as requiring attention. As such, the group annually assessed auxiliary pelagic ecosystem surveying techniques currently used on surveys coordinated by WGIPS. The discussions highlighted the range of additional work being undertaken across the group. WGIPS has continued to respond to requests from other ICES expert groups and contribute to workshops. In 2021, WGIPS held a subgroup made up of IBWSS participants (NO, FO, NL, IE, ES) to discuss the formulation of scrutiny procedures t

The Working Group on Widely Distributed Stocks (WGWIDE) reports on the status and considerations for management of Northeast-Atlantic mackerel, blue whiting, Western and North Sea horse mackerel, Northeast-Atlantic boarfish, Norwegian spring-spawning herring, striped red mullet (Subareas 6, 8 and Divisions 7.a-c, e-k and 9.a), and red gurnard (Subareas 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) stocks. Northeast-Atlantic (NEA) Mackerel. This species is widely distributed throughout the ICES area and currently supports one of the most valuable European fisheries. Mackerel is fished by a variety of fleets from many countries (ranging from open boats using handlines on the Iberian coasts to large freezer trawlers and Refrigerated Sea Water (RSW) vessels in the Northern Area). The assessment methodology was modified during the 2019 inter-benchmark process. The 2019 WGWIDE assessment was an update of the benchmarked assessment incorporating a new year for the catch information, for all surveys (egg survey, IESSNS survey and recruitment index) and for the RFID tagging recapture. After a strong increase from the late 2000s to 2014, the SSB has been declining since 2015, but remains at high levels (well above MSY Btrigger), The estimated fishing mortality has been steadily declining since the mid-2000s, and is now estimated to be close to FMSY. This decrease of the fishing mortality, while the stock has been sustaining high catches (consistently in excess to ICES advice) is explained by a succession of good recruitments, indicating a current high productivity for this stock. Blue Whiting. This pelagic gadoid is widely distributed in the eastern part of the North Atlantic. The assessment this year followed the Stock Annex based the conclusions from the Inter-Benchmark Protocol of Blue Whiting (IBPBLW 2016). The method for calculating mean weight at age for the preliminary (2019) was however changed, such that the observed values were used. Previously, a three year average