Report of the Working Group on Assessment of New MoU Species (WGNEW)

WGNEW was established in 2005 and met in 2005 and 2007. The main task of WGNEW is to provide information on the new species of the MoU between ICES and the EC: sea bass, striped red mullet, red gurnard, tub gurnard, grey gurnard, turbot, brill, dab, flounder, lemon sole, witch flounder. Later John dory was added to this list. During the 2007 meeting it was felt that many data on these species had been collected by different institutes, but that very often, these data were not analysed, or otoliths had been collected but were not aged. WGNEW therefore applied for fund-ing through the EC to make these essential data available, and in a few cases some small scale additional sampling was done. This year the results of a 12 month project became available. In this project, “NESPMAN Improving the knowledge of the biology and the fisheries of the new species for management” (http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/documentation/studies/nespman /index_en.htm), all institutes represented in WGNEW participated.  
During this year’s meeting, the WG had the ambitious plan to provide for all species a 3- to 4-page summary, plus an Annex with a compilation of all data from the previous two reports and the NESPMAN report. This meant that by the end of the 5-day meeting the report was not yet finished.
Below, the main conclusions are summarised per species.
Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax): The main countries landing sea bass are France (2/3 of the European landings) and the UK. The WG expected to be able to update the assessment of sea bass in the Channel but this could not be done because of the ab-sence of French data for 2009. Catches at the beginning of the 1980’s were around 2000 t in the North East Atlantic, but have steadily increased, reaching a peak of over 8000 t in 2006. A preliminary assessment was made for the Celtic Sea (separable VPA) on combined French and English data (area VIIe+h). The separable statistical catch at age model presented in the WGNEW2007 report was rerun. For VIIe,f, the two mod-els gave similar increasing trends for fishing mortality (for the period 2001-2009) but differed in SSB trends. A simple catch curve was computed for the area VIIIa,b which also gave an increasing trend in F. The output from these models were considered illustrative only and the WG concluded that a workshop gathering French and Eng-lish experts is necessary to conclude on the appropriate model to use.
Striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus): Landings were around 1500 t in 1985 and have increased to around 7000 t in recent years. The majority of the landings are by France and most fish is caught in the eastern Channel. Two stock areas can be distinguished: the Bay of Biscay, and the Channel combined with the southern North Sea. Survey catches are increasing but fluctuate widely between years. Time series from market sampling are still short. Due to the continuous increase of the landings no analytical assessment has been possible yet.
For the three gurnard species not much more than time series of abundance and length compositions from surveys are available. The quality of landings data is gen-erally poor since the species have usually not been well separated when landed. 

Red gurnard (Aspitrigla cuculus): The species is mainly found in the Channel and on the shelf west of Brittany. Between 2001 and 2005 landings fluctuated around 5000 t. LPUE in the eastern Channel shows an upward trend. In other parts of its distribu-tion area no trends are seen.
Tub gurnard (Trigla lucerna): Landings are 3000 to 4000 t in recent years, mainly taken in the southern North Sea (in summer) and in the eastern Channel. Survey trends indicate an increasing abundance of this species since 1985.
Grey gurnard (Eutrigla gurnardus): Only survey data are available. The species is widely distributed in the North Sea. Both in the North Sea and in Skagerrak-Kattegat abundance increases since the late 1980’s. The landings, however, are decreasing in the North Sea and only 300 to 500 t in recent years. WGNEW suggests to delete this species from its ToR’s.
Turbot (Psetta maxima): Turbot is mainly a by-catch in the fishery for flatfish and demersal species. For turbot many data on surveys and landings are available, but age data only exist for several short periods. Recently, the total landings have been between 4300 and 6000 t. The North Sea accounts for the major part of the landings. A preliminary analytical assessment for turbot in the North Sea is presented. It is stressed that this assessment should only be considered as indicative for trends. It indicates that fishing mortality has increased between 1975 and 2000. Since 2000, the increase has most likely stopped and fishing mortality has decreased. Possibly this is linked to effort reductions in the fishery for the species plaice and sole.
Brill (Scophthalmus rhombus): For this species similar data are available as for tur-bot. Due to time constraints no assessment could be made.
Common dab (Limanda limanda): Common dab is a very common flatfish in the North Sea, where it is probably also the species with the highest discarding rate. Landings from the North Sea are around 10,000 t. Survey indices, e.g. IBTS quarter 1 surveys, indicate a gradual increase in abundance.  
Flounder (Platichthys flesus): In the North Sea flounder is a by-catch in fisheries for flatfish. A considerable part of the catch is being discarded, landings are 3000 to 4000 t. Mainly data for surveys are available. Recently a market sampling programme started in The Netherlands, the main country landing flounder. The abundance of North Sea flounder in the IBTS quarter 1 survey increased between 1980 and 1990, and decreased again. Abundance was low from 1999 to 2003. In the last three years, 2008 to 2010, abundance was unusually high.
Lemon sole (Microstomus kitt): Lemon sole is a by-catch in several demersal fisher-ies. In the North Sea recent landings were 3500 to 4000 t. The available time series from Lpue and surveys show conflicting signals. LPUE data from UK (E&W) otter and beam trawlers off the northeast coast of England show a general decrease whereas survey abundance shows an increasing trend
Witch flounder (Glyptocephalus cynoglossus): This species is particularly important in the Skagerrak-Kattegat area where it is a valuable by-catch in fisheries by Denmark and Sweden. An assessment was attempted but the results were too uncertain to be presented.