Report of the Comprehensive Fishery Evaluation Working Group

The Comprehensive Fishery Evaluation Working Group [WGCOMP) (Chairman: Dr G. Stefansson. Iceland) will meet at ICES Headquarters from 25 June to 4 July 1997 to:

a) continue the development of tools for the comprehensive evaluation of fisheries;

b) suggest and evaluate methods for medium-term projections which take into account harvest control

laws;

c) continue the comprehensive evaluation of the following fisheries:

i. North Sea flatfish.

ii. Norwegian spring-spawning herring,

iii. North Sea herring.

iv. Icelandic haddock.

v. Southem Gulf of SI. Lawrence cod;

d) evaluate the implications for assessment and management of the stability or trends and catchabilities

from surveys and commercial CPUE data in demersal fisheries, using the North Sea J.nd Faroe

Plateau roundfish stocks as examples;

e) report on the reliability of catch forecasts in those circumstances when commercial catches and/or

catch rates are subject to significant errors.