Report of the Workshop to Evaluate the Management Plan for Iberian Sardine (WKSardineMP)

The Workshop to evaluate the management plan for Iberian sardine (WKSardineMP) met in Lisbon 4–7 June 2013 to answer a request from the EU Commission to ICES for advice on whether a multiannual management plan developed by Portugal and Spain is con-sistent with ICES precautionary approach in the long term.
The management plan was a rule where the TAC is set at a fixed level, but reduced if the biomass (B1+) is below a trigger B1, and the fishery is stopped at B1+ below another ref-erence point B0.
The performance of the rule was examined with the HCS software, with specific values for the parameters B0, Btrigger and standard TAC, according to the request. The software was conditioned according to the results of the most recent stock assessment by WGHANSA, and in relation to reference points Blim and FMSY that were proposed in a parallel process. The reference B1+ was not specifically stated. It was found that taking as reference the biomass at the end of the last year covered by the assessment would be preferable.
The proposed rule gave a long-term risk to Blim of 13%. It is argued that this still may be acceptable because of the nature of the Blim as Bloss from a period with moderate exploita-tion, and because a high probability of rapid recovery when SSB falls below Blim could be demonstrated.
The performance of the rule in terms of stability of catches and stock recovery by 2015 was also examined. By 2015, the probability of B1+ Alternative rules were briefly examined to give an indication of possible future im-provements, but not to a stage where specific alternatives could be proposed.