Minutes of the meeting of the ICES Advisory Committee (ACOM), September 2024.

The Advisory Committee (ACOM) September meeting was a one-day hybrid meeting attached to the Annual Science Conference in Gateshead, United Kingdom.

The meeting started with a science-focused joint meeting with SCICOM considering the joint issues of how to strengthen and consolidate Ecosystem-based management (EBM) and how to mainstream climate change understandings and knowledge for advice. This was kicked off by three simulating presentations on: “The ICES Framework for Ecosystem-Informed Science and Advice and EBM - a "palatable" explanation”; “Mainstreaming climate change knowledge for advice”; and “Digital Twins for stock assessments or oceanographic applications in windfarms”. These led to extensive and valuable discussion.

The committee established a subgroup and a process the review and update the Advisory Plan. ACOM agreed to start a test case to pilot the next version of conservation considerations as part of the Greater North Sea ecoregion FO workshop. ACOM discussed future integration of overviews and established a subgroup to investigate the possibilities further with the proviso that this should not add to workload. ACOM has a discussion on quality assurance related issues and challenges to the perception of advice including retrospective patterns. It was agreed that this area needs to be strengthened further through workshops and improved communication of risks.

A subgroup was established to discuss how to handle big shifts in advice and how to communicate these changes effectively to stakeholders. ACOM discussed the need for guidelines on forecast inputs and assumptions and concluded that more reflection was need on the issues raised before making decisions. ACOM were informed that the leadership are already working on integrating and streamlining guideline documents. Revisions to the ADG (Advice Drafting Group) guidelines were discussed and a process to finalise these was agreed. The draft WKNEWREF report was discussed, and it was agreed to await the final report before taking any decisions on the draft recommendations. ACOM will return to this at the December meeting.

The ACOM Chair informed ACOM that he had met with the chairs of the Working Group on Recreational Fisheries Surveys (WGRFS) and that the roadmap was at an advanced stage and would be published before the end of the year. Going forward it is expected that marine recreational fisheries information will be integrated into the advice sheets where relevant. ACOM agreed the timeline for the Fish List revision process and the ICES Secretariat was asked to establish an ADG and advisory process for this.

ACOM also approved the draft advice for Bothnian Herring (her.27.3031).