Evaluation of the EU–Russia proposal for the harvest control component of the management plan for Rockall haddock fisheries

ICES advises  that  the  proposed  harvest  control  rules  (HCRs) of the  management  plan  for  Rockall  haddock are  in  accordance  with  the  precautionary  approach  if  future  recruitment  is  characteristic  of  the  range  observed  in  the  full  assessment time-series (1991–2011). However, if the generally poor recruitment observed from 2004 onward persists in the long term, the proposed HCRs imply that the stock will be below Blim with a high probability (i.e. much greater than a 5% probability). In this case, ICES advises that F values lower than those currently in the HCRs would be required for the  management  plan  to  be  consistent  with  the  precautionary  approach.  ICES  advises  that  the  derivation  of  the  SSB  value to be used in paragraph 4 of the proposal needs to be clarified.