ADHOC - Evaluations of Management strategies for Norway pout in the North Sea and Skagerrak Report

The proposed Management Strategies (Options 1, 2 and 3) are in accordance with the sustainability criteria under the precautionary approach given a minimum TAC of maximum 27 kt and an assumption about future fishing mortality or fishing effort within the range of the values observed for the last decade.

Application of a higher minimum TAC (50 kt), is possible for option 2 and 3. This higher minimum TAC is mainly due to the scenario assumption that the minimum TAC for option 2 and 3 has to be taken within the first half-year while the minimum TAC can be taken within the full year for option 1. With the assumption of an upper limit on realised fishing mortality (Cap F) by half-year, the realised catch can be higher with option 1 which increases the risk of overfishing in years with a low stock size.

The risk for SSB below Blim for option 1 and 3 is not sensitive to the choice of maxi-mum TAC. However, both a high minimum TAC and a high maximum TAC make the risk to Blim more sensitive to the scenario assumption of a Cap F. A high mini-mum TAC in combination with a high maximum TAC might require effort manage-ment to ensure that fishing mortality remains within the range of the values observed for the last decade.

The management strategy evaluations and simulations confirm the general observa-tion that a fixed F strategy will provide a lower long term yield than an escapement strategy for such a short lived species like Norway pout. The “cost” of the escape-ment strategy is a much more variable fishing mortality from one year to the next. Stability in landings is also lower for the escapement strategy.