Report of the Working Group on Methods of Fish Stock Assessment

It was decided at the 80th Statutory Meeting in 1992 (C.Res.1992/2:8:21) that the Working Group on Methods of Fish Stock Assessment (Chairman: Dr G. Stefansson) would meet at ICES Headquarters from 3-10 February 1993 to:

a) investigate the use of risk analysis, especially how it might be useful in addressing the definition of safe biologicallimits;

b) investigate alternative assessment methods for short-lived species and advise on their usefulness;

c) investigate the appropriate use of shrinkage in tuning and advise how it should be implemented for assessment Working Groups.

d) investigate, using retrospective analyses, which regression methods are most appropriate for recruitment estimation, with particular reference to North Sea herring and Icelandic capelin, and advise on how these recruitment estimates should be brought forward into the predictions;

e) review the reports of the Workshop on the Analysis of Trawl Survey Data and the Planning Group for the Development of Multispecies, Multifleet Assessment Tools and indicate promising directions for future development.