Report of the Workshop on the determination of reference points for Norwegian Spring Spawning Herring (WKNSSHREF)

The Norwegian spring spawning herring (NSSH) was benchmarked in 2016 (ICES, 2016) and XSAM was accepted as the standard assessment model for this stock. The reference points were to be evaluated during the benchmark. However, due to time constraint only B_lim was evaluated. The conclusion was that B_lim should remain unchanged at 2.5 million tonnes. After WGWIDE in 2016, it was decided that the completion of the review of the reference points should be done before WGWIDE in 2017. At WGWIDE 2017 meeting a working document on the revision of the reference points was presented (Utne, 2017), but WGWIDE concluded that further work needed to be done. Thus, it was decided that the reference points be reviewed before WGWIDE 2018, using the present assessment model XSAM. Following that decision, the coastal states requested ICES to “to finish the process of re-evaluation of the reference points for Norwegian spring-spawning (Atlanto-Scandian) herring during the first quarter of 2018. Provided that ICES has completed their work on the reference points, the delegations agreed to meet before 15 May 2018 to discuss a possible revision of the long-term management strategy.”
In order to meet the request, a workshop was set up by ICES and took place in ICES headquarters 10-11th April 2018. The workshop was attended by 12 participants.
XSAM simulations were conducted for the NSSH. These followed the ICES advice technical guidelines as published on 20th of January 2017 (ICES 2017) for the estimation of the precautionary and MSY reference points.