Executive summary

• Author: Diana González-Troncoso - Fernando González-Costas - Agurtzane Urtizberea - Ricardo Alpoim - Carmen Fernández - Thomas Brunel - José de Oliveira - Antonio Ávila - Alfonso Pérez - Panayiota Apostolaki - Santiago Cerviño - Esther Román - Dorleta García - Ane Iriondo - Eduardo Santos
• Pages: 8-13

EASME/EMFF/2016/008 Provision of Scientific Advice for fisheries beyond EU Waters

"Support to a robust model assessment, benchmark and development of a management strategy evaluation for cod in NAFO

Division 3M". Final Report.

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Purpose of the specific contract

The purpose of this specific study is to provide the Directorate-General for Maritime

Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization

(NAFO) Scientific Council with technical and scientific analysis to:

 Address the shortcomings of the current assessment model, identified by the NAFO Working

Group on Risk Based Management Strategies (WG-RBMS) (NAFO FC/SC 15/02), the Scientific

Council (SC) (NAFO SCS 15/12) and the Fisheries Commission (FC) (NAFO/FC 15/23) in 201 5.

 Support the development of the 3M cod benchmark process within NAFO.

 Develop and test the robustness of various Harvest Control Rules (HCR) for cod in Div. 3M to

achieve the management objectives to be established by the FC.

To achieve these objectives, three different Tasks were designed:

Task 1. Organise a workshop focusing on the current assessment model and the

uncertainty in the projections for cod in Division 3M.

Task 2. Support the development of the benchmark assessment for cod in Div. 3M.

Task 3. Support the development of the multiannual management plan for cod in

Div. 3M.

The aim of this Executive Summary is to present the main results of each Project Task

and the conclusions and decisions about the 3M cod Management Strategy Evaluation

(MSE) made by the NAFO SC and the NAFO WG-RBMS, based on these results.

Main results of the Tasks

Task 1: Organise a workshop focusing on the 2015 assessment model and the

uncertainty in the projections for cod in Division 3M to address the shortcomings

identified by the NAFO Working Group on Risk Based Management Strategies (WG-

RBMS), the Scientific Council and the Fisheries Commission in 2015.

The workshop was held in Vigo during March 21st – 23rd 2017. The results of this Task

have been detailed in the workshop Report sent to the EASME on May 9th 2017

(Deliverable D1.1.).

The main results of the workshop were proposals submitted to the June 2017 SC

meeting and recommendations to the benchmark process. All the proposals and

recommendations were endorsed by the SC.

Proposals submitted to the June 2017 SC meeting.

1. The workshop proposed that the next assessment uses the final year valu es of the inputs in

the projections instead of the usual mean of the final thre e years, to reduce th e impact of