Report of the Working Group on methods of fish stock assessments

It was decided at the Statutory Meeting in Copenhagen in (C.Res.1984/2:4:14) that the Working Group on Methods of Stock Assessment (Chairman: Dr J.G. Shepherd) would meet at Headquarters from 20-26 November 1985 to examine: 1984 Fish ICES i) sensitivity of assessment techniques to assumptions concerning natural mortality, ii) effects of discarding on assessment calculations especially mesh assessments, iii) advances in simpler methods of assessment (especially those based on size composition). In addition, the Working Group decided to return briefly to two of its previous topics, the estimation of recruitment and the "tuning" of terminal fishing mortalities for VPA.