Report of the Working Group on Multispecies Assessment of Baltic Fish

Terms of Reference:
a) continue the development of the multispecies VPA for Sub-divisions 22-24 and 25-32 taking into account the comments from the Working Group on the Assessment of Pelagic Stocks in the Baltic and the Working Group on the Assessment of Demersal stocks in the Baltic;
b) extend the MSVPA to cover the period 1977-1990;
c) describe and evaluate the present knowledge of the herring and sprat predation on cod eggs and larvae;
d) describe and evaluate the effect of the cod predation as well as other possible effects on the weight-at-age changes observed for herring in the later years;
e) decide upon a standard record specification of the cod stomach database.