EU standing request on catch scenarios for zero‑TAC stocks 2025: whiting (<i>Merlangius merlangus</i>) in Division 7.a (Irish Sea)

<p dir="ltr">Whiting (<i>Merlangius merlangus</i>) in Division 7.a is taken as bycatch, with no targeted fisheries for this stock permitted. The current ICES advice is that when the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) approach is applied with precautionary considerations, there should be zero catch in each of the years 2024 and 2025 (biennial advice; ICES, 2023). The mixed‑fisheries analysis shows that whiting is caught as a bycatch species by both demersal and, to a lesser degree, pelagic fisheries in the Irish Sea. The EU multiannual plan (MAP) for stocks in Western Waters and adjacent waters (EU, 2019) takes into account the bycatch of this species. There is no agreed shared management plan between the EU and UK for this stock.</p><p dir="ltr">This technical service provides one additional scenario based on expected bycatch of status quo fishing effort using the mixed-fisheries model of the Irish Sea (ICES, 2024a). Furthermore, two additional catch scenarios are presented based on single-stock forecasts that respectively result in stable whiting spawning-stock biomass (SSB) and a SSB increase of +20% between 2025 and 2026 (ICES, 2024b).</p><p dir="ltr">Mixed-fisheries scenario:</p><p><br></p><ul><li>1 302 tonnes are estimated to be caught as bycatch if fishing effort continues at <i>status</i> <i>quo </i>levels<i> </i>(average 2021–2023), which would result in a whiting SSB of 1106 tonnes in 2026.</li></ul><p dir="ltr">The status quo effort scenario results in a reduction in whiting SSB in 2026 relative to 2025 (−9%), which is below B_lim (10 000 tonnes).</p><p dir="ltr">Single-stock scenarios:</p><ul><li>A catch of 1 172 tonnes in 2025 would result in SSB of whiting that is stable between 2025 and 2026;</li><li>A catch of 863 tonnes in 2025 would result in a 20% increase in SSB of whiting in 2026, compared to 2025.</li></ul><p dir="ltr">Since whiting are caught as bycatch in mixed fisheries, a specific monitoring TAC is not be required for this stock.</p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>