Report of the North Sea Roundfish Working Group

At the 1985 Statutory Meeting of ICES, it was decided (C.Res. 1986/2:5:7) that the North sea Roundfish Working Group should meet from 9-20 March 1987 at ICES Headquarters to:

a) consider the report of the ad hoc Multispecies Assessment Working Group;

b) examine the evidence commercial fisheries consequences; for and changes in catchability in both research surveys and evaluate the consequences

c) assess the status of and provide catch options for 1988 within safe biological limits for the stocks of cod, haddock, whiting, and saithe in Sub-areas IV and VI (also including Division IlIa for saithe); cod, haddock, and whiting in Divisions Vlld, e and VlIb,c,h-k (also including Division Vllg for haddock); and saithe in Sub-area VII,

d) provide quarterly catch-at-age and catch and stock mean weight-at-age data and information on the relative distribution at different ages by quarter for North Sea cod, haddock, whiting and saithe for 1986 as input for the Multispecies VPA