Report of the North Western Working Group (NWWG), Sec 9

Traditionally, the S. mentella on the shelves and banks around the Faroe Islands, Iceland and at East Greenland have been treated as one stock unit, with a common area of larval extrusion to the SW of Iceland, a drift of the pelagic fry towards the nursery areas on relatively shallow waters at East Greenland, and feeding and copulation areas on the shelves and banks around Faroe Islands, Iceland and at East Greenland. In Faroese waters spawning has been observed in some years to the south and west of the islands, implying that there could be a local component in the area; no nursery areas have, however, been found so far (Reinert, 1990). A relationship to other ICES areas (II and IV) have also been suggested (Reinert et al., 1992; Reinert and Lastein, 1992). The question of a possible relationship between the deep-sea S. mentella on the shelf in Subareas V and XIV and the pelagic deep-sea S.mentella in the Irminger Sea has been raised several times. The ICES Working Group in 1999 on the Application of Genetics in Fisheries and Mariculture (WGAGFM) states that the presence of significant genetic differences between these two deep-sea components indicating probably distinct genetic stocks. The NWWG therefore continues treating the deep-sea S. mentella on the shelf as a separate self-contained stock unit. For management purposes the Icelandic authorities separate the deep-sea S. mentella on the shelf (some of which are caught in pelagic trawls) from the pelagic S.mentella in the

Irminger Sea (both oceanic and pelagic deep-sea type) by straight lines through three positions (Figure 9.1.1).