Atlantic salmon from North America

ICES advises that when the MSY approach is applied, fishing should only take place on salmon from rivers where stocks have been shown to be at full reproductive capacity. Furthermore, because of the different status of individual stocks within stock complexes, mixed-stock fisheries present particular threats. The management of a fishery should ideally be based on the individual status of all stocks exploited in the fishery.

Management advice in the form of catch options is only provided for non-maturing 1SW and maturing 2SW salmon, as the maturing 1SW component is not fished outside of homewaters. In the absence of any fishing, there is less than 75% probability in 2015 to 2018 that the numbers of 2SW salmon returning to the six regions of North America will be above the management objectives (conservation limits for the four northern areas, rebuilding objectives for the two southern areas) simultaneously for the six regions. Therefore, in line with the objectives agreed by NASCO, there are no mixedstock fishery options on 1SW non-maturing salmon and 2SW salmon in North America in 2015 to 2018.

The Framework of Indicators (FWI) was updated in support of the multi-year catch advice and the potential approval of multi-year regulatory measures. The FWI can be applied at the beginning of 2016, with the returns or return rate data for 2015, to evaluate the appropriateness of the advice for 2016, and again at the beginning of 2017, with the returns or return rate data for 2016, to evaluate the appropriateness of the advice for 2017.