Report of Working Group on Fisheries Units in Sub-areas VII and VIII

At the 19811 ICES Statutory Meeting it was decided (C. Res. 1984/ 2:4:17) that a Working Group on Fisheries units in Sub areas VII and VIIl should meet in Nantes with following terms of reference :

i) to define fisheries units (i.e operational units of exploitation, assessment and management) in terms of target species, gear, fleets, areas and seasons,

ii) to apply appropriate assessment methods to quantify these relationships and the present state of the fisheries units defined, to the extent allowed, by the currently available data,

iii) to recommend actions and research programmes necessary to update the database available for carrying out these tasks.