Report of the Benchmark Workshop on Southern megrim and hake (WKSOUTH)

Benchmark Workshop on Southern megrim and hake (WKSOUTH) met in Copenhagen (Denmark) from 3-7 February 2013 to perform a benchmark assessment on the stocks of Northern Hake, Southern Hake, megrim and four spot megrim in ICES Divisions VIIIc and IXa. All the terms of reference were covered during the meeting and apart from the reference point of megrim, an agreement has been reached on all assessment, projections and reference points. With the exception of the reference point for megrim and four spot megrim, all the work regarding the ToR was agreed and finalized before the end of the workshop and large parts of the report, including the summary of issues and recommendations had been finished before the end of the meeting. Additional work has been done on the reference point for both megrim stocks after the benchmark meeting and an agreement has been reached during a WebEx meeting following the benchmark meeting.