Joint Report of the Study Group on Unaccounted Fishing Mortality (SGUFM) and the Workshop on Unaccounted Fishing Mortality (WKUFM)

Unaccounted fishing mortality can be a source of bias in the estimation of total fishing mortality for a considerable number of stocks on which ICES currently gives advice, including many “critical” species. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) and discarding are of the greatest concern to the stock assessment working groups at present. Other potential sources of unaccounted fishing mortality (e.g. escape mortality and ghost fishing) may also be affecting some fisheries, but as of yet their impact has not been properly assessed.