Saithe (Pollachius virens) in subareas 1 and 2 (Northeast Arctic)

The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs implemented a harvest control rule (HCR) in autumn 2007 (see Annex). The HCR has the objectives of maintaining high long-term yield, year-to-year stability, and full utilization of all available information on the stock dynamics. The plan aims to maintain target F at Fpa = 0.35 and minimize between-year TAC change to +/ 15%, unless SSB falls below Bpa in which case the management targets should change. ICES evaluated the Harvest Control Rule and concluded that it is consistent with the precautionary approach, providing the assessment uncertainty and error are not greater than those calculated from historical data. This also holds true when an implementation error (difference between TAC and catch) equal to the historical level of 3% is included.