Herring Assessment Working Group for the area South of 62° N (HAWG)

The ICES herring assessment working group (HAWG) met on an interactive virtual platform for nine days in March 2021 to assess the state of five herring stocks and three sprat stocks. HAWG also provided advice for eight sandeel stocks but reported on those, prior to this meeting, in February. The working group conducted update assessments for four of the five herring stocks. The assessment of the North Sea autumn spawning herring was postponed to an interbenchmark 8–10 June 2021 (IBPNSHerring 2021). An analytical assessment was performed for the combined North Sea and Division 3.a sprat, and data limited assessment (ICES category 3 and 5) were conducted for English Channel sprat (spr.27.7de) and sprat in the Celtic Sea (spr.27.67a-cf-k).