Report of the Working Group on Fisheries Units in Sub Areas VII and VIII

At the 1986 ICES statutory meeting in Copenhagen, it was decided (C. Res 1986/2 : 5 : 21) that: The working Group on Fisheries units in Sub-area VII and VIII (Chairman Dr J. Gueguen) should meet in Nantes from 10-15 September 1987 to :

i) improve the detailed description of the fishery units for the area (by country, number and characteristics of vessels, seasonality and fishing pattern) ;

ii) continue to improve the biological and fishery data base for application of fleet-based assessment models;

iii), attempt to asses the short term and long term consequences of recent mesh changes agreed for the area, and those proposed for the future, including the different gains and losses for different fleets if the changes are not uniformly implemented in practice.