Report of the Study Group on Bass (SGBASS)

The Bass Study Group (SGBASS) was established by ICES at the Statutory Meeting in 2000 in order to respond to questions posed by the European Commission on the status of bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) stocks, their sustainability and management requirements of their fisheries in Community waters of the Northeast Atlantic. The report of the first meeting of this Group in March 2002 (ICES, 2002) provided preliminary assessments in relation to this request, and anticipated that these questions would be fully addressed in 2003. The SGBASS Terms of Reference agreed by ACFM in October 2002 are to meet in Lowestoft from August 18-22, 2003, to:

a) compile data for assessment of bass stocks in ICES Sub-areas IV, VII, VIII and IX;

b) where possible, present assessments of these bass stocks and identify their stock conservation requirements; and

c) provide data and conduct evaluations of technical interactions between métiers catching bass, as a basis for economic analyses to be conducted outside ICES.

SGBASS will report by 5 September 2003 for the attention of ACFM and the Living Resources Committee.