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

The ICES Working Group on Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Surveys (WGMEGS),chaired by Cindy van Damme (IMARES, The Netherlands) and Finlay Burns (MSS,UK), met at ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen from 20–24 April 2015, to plan the Mackereland Horse Mackerel Egg Survey in 2016. The nations participating in the 2016Northeast Atlantic MEGS survey will be Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, The Netherlands,Germany, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The main aim of the survey is to relatethe number of freshly spawned eggs found in the water to the number of females havingproduced these eggs. Knowing the fecundity of the females and sex ratio providesan estimate for the spawning-stock biomass.The 2016 survey will be based on seven regular sampling periods (Section 6) and anadditional eighth period that will be tasked with recording any horse mackerel spawningtaking place beyond the finish date of the regular survey. Norway has withdrawntheir participation from first the North Sea MEGS survey and now also from the NortheastAtlantic (NEA) survey, at a time when the continued expansion of the NEA mackerelstock has resulted in a spatial and temporal broadening of the mackerel spawningarea and season. Additional information collated from winter surveys undertaken in2014/2015 (Section 12) point toward a continuation of the early peak spawning as observedduring the 2010 and the 2013 MEGS surveys. The impact of which will be thatsurveying in the western area will commence during the first week of February 2016,which is two weeks earlier compared to 2013.