Greater Silver Smelt (Argentina Silus) in Subareas 1, 2, and 4 and division 3.a

Stock annex updated 2024.

Greater silver smelt (Argentina silus) in Subareas 1, 2, 4 and Division 3.a is from 2015 onwards treated as one management unit/stock. Stock structure was a subject at the WKGSS 2020 benchmark for greater silver smelt (ICES 2021), where this stock was benchmarked for the first time.

The current perception is based on the historical and present separation of fisheries targeting greater silver smelt into distinctive subareas of the North Atlantic. Target fisheries developed in these distinct subareas because aggregations of spawners were discovered, facilitating aimed benthopelagic trawling.

In the Norwegian Sea and North Sea-Skagerrak the distribution is continuous from the Skagerrak along the Norwegian Deep northwards along the Norwegian shelf to the entrance to the Barents Sea. Documented spawning areas are deep shelf troughs and upper slope waters off mid-Norway and deeper parts of the Skagerrak, but it is likely that the species also spawns in deep Norwegian fjords. Studies of population genetics are ongoing.