Final Report of the Working Group on Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Surveys (WGMEGS)

During its 3-year cycle, the ICES Working Group on Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Surveys (WGMEGS) met twice, on 20–24 April 2015 and 24–28 April 2017. Dur-ing the survey year in 2016 there was no meeting but a report was published fine tuning of the 2016 survey plan and presenting results of the 2015 North Sea mackerel egg survey. WGMEGS was chaired by Cindy van Damme (Wageningen Marine Re-search, the Netherlands) and Finlay Burns (MSS, Aberdeen, Scotland). The meeting in 2015 dealt with the planning of the 2016 Northeast Atlantic mackerel and horse mackerel egg survey and the 2015 North Sea mackerel egg survey. In 2017 WGMEGS met to evaluate the results of the Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Survey in 2016 and to plan the North Sea Mackerel Egg Survey in 2017. The main objective of the survey is to produce both an index and a direct estimate of the biomass of the North-east Atlantic mackerel stock and an index for the western horse mackerel stock.