Workshop on the Benchmark Assessment and Management Plan Evaluation for Icelandic Haddock and Saithe (WKICEMSE)

On 16 October, 2018, ICES received the following request from Iceland “to evaluate the historical performance of the management plans for haddock and saithe against their general aim of maintaining the exploitation rate at the rate which is consistent with the precautionary approach and are in conformity with the ICES MSY approach. ICES is also asked to evaluate the changes in the assessment methods and reference points (Benchmark) if the outcome of the consultations results in any changes. Similarly, to evaluate if the possible changes in the HCR are consistent with the precautionary approach and are in conformity with the ICES MSY approach ...”. On further correspondence received by ICES on 1 March, 2019, ICES was specifically requested to review two specified control rules for Icelandic haddock (had.27.5a) and saithe (pok.27.5a). 

The WKICEMSE 2019 – Workshop on the benchmark assessment and management plan evaluation for Icelandic haddock and saithe – was held at ICES headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark on 26–28 March 2019. The benchmark process was initiated by a WebEx on 4 March with participations of the external reviewers, chairs and the two stock assessors. Two working documents on the stock assessment and MSE were presented by the stock assessors. There were no major issues identified by the reviewers with respect to input data, assessment models and Management Strategy Evaluation for the two stocks. This might be due to the fact that there were no ”issue list” made before the benchmark process, probably because WKICEMSE 2019 was a result of a request from the Icelandic Ministry of Industries and Innovation, rather than triggered from issues to be solved identified by ICES.