Report of the Planning Group for a Sardine Acoustic Survey in ICES Sub-Area VIII and IX

The abundance estimates of sardine from the acoustic surveys carried out by both Spain and Portugal are used to tune the VPA in the assessment of this species. The best tuning results have been obtained when the surveys were carried out simultaneously. However, due to the important changes in the stock distribution area which have occurred in the last few years, the survey design needs to be revised in order to obtain more precise estimates.