Report of the Inter Benchmark Protocol on Norway Pout in the North Sea and Skagerrak (IBP Pout 2012)

The ICES IBPNorwayPout inter-benchmark exercise evaluated alternative biological inputs in the stock assessment for natural mortality, sexual maturity and growth (mean weight-at-age in the stock) for the Norway pout stock in the North Sea and Skagerrak. The natural mortality, maturity, and mean weight used in the scenarios evaluated in the benchmarking process originate from results published in Nielsen et al. (2012); Lambert et al. (2009); Sparholt et al. (2002a,b); as well as from the multispe-cies assessment working group ICES WGSAM 2011. In particular, natural mortality estimates for Norway pout originating from the new key run of the multispecies SMS model were applied here. Five scenarios were considered, a Baseline Scenario follow-ing the current assessment approach and four additional scenarios which explored alternative biological inputs.