Report of the Working Group on the Assessment of Southern Shelf Stocks of Hake, Monk and Megrim (WGHMM)

The ICES Working Group on the Assessment of Southern Shelf Stocks of Hake, Monk and

Megrim [WGHMM] met in Vigo, Spain, from 8-17 May 2007. In the remit of the WG there

are 19 stocks, including Nephrops Functional Units (FU), distributed from ICES Division IIIa

to IXa: 2 stocks of hake (northern: Div. IIIa to VIIIa,b and southern: Div VIIIc and IXa), 4

stocks of anglerfish (L.piscatorius and L. budegassa in Sub-areas VII and VIII and in Div.

VIIIc and IXa), 3 stocks of megrim (L. whiffiagonis in Sub-areas VII and VIII and L.

Whiffiagonis and L. boscii in Div. VIIIc and IXa), 1 stock of sole (Bay of Biscay, Div.

VIIIa,b), 4 FU of Nephrops in Sub-area VII, 2 FU of Nephrops in Div. VIIIa,b (Bay of Biscay

Nephrops), 2 FU of Nephrops in Div VIIIc and 5 FU of Nephrops in Div IXa. The stock of

sole was included in WGHMM for the first time this year. There were 21 participants (2 in

part-time and 1 by correspondence) from 5 countries (Portugal, Spain, France, UK and

Ireland). The main terms of reference were to carry out stock assessments and to provide catch

forecasts for 2008 for the fish stocks and to evaluate the recovery plans for the stocks of hake.

Nephrops ToRs were to update catch information.