Working Group on Widely Distributed Stocks (WGWIDE)

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