ICES Advice 2008, Book 2 13

2.3 Assessments and advice

2.3.1 Assessment and advice regarding protection of biota and habitats

In 2007, ICES has not provided advice regarding protection of biota and habitats for this area.

2.3.2 Assessments and advice regarding fisheries

Mixed fisheries and fisheries interactions

The major fishery in Greenland is the shrimp fishery, with annual landings of about 100 000 t. This fishery had bycatches of juvenile cod, redfish, and Greenland halibut, but since the mandatory use of sorting grids (bar distance 26 mm) was introduced in this fishery, the magnitude of bycatches has been observed to be insignificant. Large pelagic fisheries for S. mentella mainly southeast of Greenland are clean fisheries without bycatches. The only bottom trawl fisheries for fish are for Greenland halibut at depths of 500 1500 m; this fishery has small bycatches of roundnose grenadier and sharks. Occasional longline fisheries in East Greenland are rather clean with minor bycatches of roughhead grenadier, tusk, Atlantic halibut, and Greenland shark. Since 2005 an exploratory fishery for cod has taken place mainly in East Greenland. Redfish is supposed to be a bycatch in this fishery, and some vessels do also switch to a fishery on Greenland halibut at deeper waters.

Some of the species caught in Icelandic waters are caught in fisheries targeting only one species, with very little bycatch. An example of this is the directed Greenland halibut fishery which is fished in waters deeper than 500 m west and southeast of Iceland. The bycatch in the Greenland halibut fishery in these areas show that it is a very clean fishery, with Greenland halibut comprising over 90% of the total catches in the western area where the majority catches are taken, and with deep-sea redfish being the most important bycatch species comprising less than 9% of the total catch in that area. Other bottom trawl fisheries are more mixed. Figure 2.3.2.6 indicates to what extent the 2007 catch of different species is bycatch. The x-axis indicates the proportion of each species in regard to the total catch in the setting or haul, and the y-axis shows the proportion of the annual catch of the species coming from hauls where the proportion of the species is less than the selected proportion. From this coarse analysis one may conclude that the fisheries of cod, haddock, saithe, and S. marinus is a relatively mixed fishery. However, the Greenland halibut fishery is relatively direct. Thus, any advice given for the Greenland halibut should not influence the advice on gadoid stocks.

At present, ICES assesses only a few of the stocks currently exploited in Icelandic waters. However, many of the species listed in Table 2.3.2.1 are assessed by the Marine Research Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland, and TACs are advised. The Icelandic management authorities set TACs for these species.

If a proper fishery-based advice taking mixed fisheries issues into account should be given for the Icelandic fishery ICES would need to evaluate the status of all the stocks exploited in the Icelandic ecosystem. ICES is therefore not in a position to provide mixed fisheries advice for these fisheries.

ICES Advice 2007, Book 2 14

Single-stock exploitation boundaries and critical stocks

The state of stocks and single-stock exploitation boundaries are summarized in the table below.

State of the stock ICES considerations in relation to single-stock exploitation boundaries

Species

Spawning biomass in relation to precautionary limits

Fishing mortality in relation to precautionary limits

Fishing mortality in relation to highest yield

Fishing mortality in relation to agreed target

in relation to agreed management plan

in relation to precautionary limits

in relation to target reference points / high long-term yield

Upper limit corresponding to single-stock exploitation boundary for agreed management plan or in relation to precautionary limits. Tonnes or effort

Greenland cod

Undefined Undefined Undefined No targets agreed

- No fishing, TAC = 0 and develop multi annual management plan

- No fishing, develop multi-annual management plan

Icelandic cod Undefined Undefined Overfished No targets agreed

- < 124 000 t for 2008/2009 based on Fmax

- < 124 000 t for 2008/2009

Icelandic haddock

Undefined Increased risk Undefined No targets agreed

- < 83 000 t in 2008/2009. - < 83 000 t in 2008/2009

Icelandic saithe

Full reproductive capacity

Increased risk Undefined No targets agreed

- < 22 000 t in 2008/2009 to maintain SSB at Bpa

< 22 000 t in 2008/2009

Greenland halibut

Undefined Undefined Undefined No targets agreed

- Adaptive management plan, reduce to 5 000 t

- < 5 000 t and develop adaptive management plan

Sebastes marinus

Increased risk Undefined Undefined No target agreed

- < 30 000 t (for total area) - < 30 000 t (for total area)

Sebastes mentella (Irm)

No new assessment Same advice as last year < 20 000 t, develop and implement management plan

Demersal Sebastes mentella

Undefined Undefined Undefined No target agreed

- Develop adaptive management plan, reduce catch to < 10 000 t

- < 10 000 t, develop and implement adaptive management plan

Icelandic Capelin

Undefined Undefined Undefined Appropriate No basis for preliminary TAC in 2008/2009

No basis for preliminary TAC in 2008/2009

Icelandic summer-spawning herring

Full reproductive capacity

Increased risk Undefined No targets agreed

- 131 000 t in 2008/2009 based on Fpa

- 131 000 t in 2008/2009

The advice for ling, blue ling, tusk, and argentines appear in 2008 in Volume 9 on widely distributed and migratory stocks. This advice is issued only every second year.

14 IC

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Identification of critical stocks

The table above identifies the exploitation boundaries for single stocks in the area. The stocks which require closures or large reductions in fisheries are cod in the East Greenland area, Greenland halibut, Icelandic saithe, Icelandic capelin, demersal S. mentella and pelagic S. mentella in the Irminger Sea and adjacent areas.

Advice for fisheries management

The present advice does not cover all stocks taken in that area. If a proper fishery-based advice taking mixed fisheries issues into account should be given for the Icelandic fishery ICES would need to evaluate the status of all stocks listed in Table 2.3.2.1. ICES is therefore not in a position to provide mixed fisheries advice for these fisheries. For the stocks covered by the present advice ICES can provide the following advice:

For the area around Iceland Division Va, Subarea XII, and the East Greenland area (Division XIV) the following apply:

1. Concerning the fisheries in the East Greenland area (Division XIV) in 2009 there should be no fishery on Greenland cod.

2. For other species, fishing of each species should be restricted within the precautionary limits as indicated in the table of individual stock limits above. Many of these stocks are confined to only part of the areas under consideration and the advice only pertains to the stock area.

Furthermore, unless ways can be found to harvest species caught in a mixed fishery within precautionary limits for all those species individually, then fishing should not be permitted.

Regulations in force and their effects

Greenland EEZ

From January 1977 the fishing zone around Greenland was extended from 12 to 200 nm. The resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) were then regarded as EC resources and TACs and other regulations were set by the EC. By 1979 the Greenland Home Rule Act came into effect, giving Greenland authority over Denmark for the management of fishery resources.

The practical exercise of authority in Greenland s fisheries management system has been maintained by means of inspection and license control, and through the management of fish processing plants. In most cases, by limiting the time periods in which purchase is allowed, these latter authoritative methods have enabled restrictions on fisheries with very short notice.

Iceland EEZ

The Ministry of Fisheries is responsible for the management of the Icelandic fisheries and implementation of the legislation. The Ministry issues regulations for commercial fishing for each fishing year, including an allocation of the TAC for each of the stocks subject to such limitations.

A system of boat quotas was introduced in 1984. The agreed quotas were based on the Marine Research Institute s TAC recommendations, taking some socio-economic effects into account, as a rule to increase the quotas. Until 1990 the quota year corresponded to the calendar year, but since then the quota, or fishing year, starts on September 1 and ends on August 31 the following year. This was done to meet the needs of the fishing industry.

In 1990, an individual transferable quota (ITQ) system was established for the fisheries and they were subject to vessel catch quotas. The quotas represent shares in the national total allowable catch (TAC) for each species, and most of the Icelandic fleets operate under this system.

With the extension of the fisheries jurisdiction to 200 miles, Iceland introduced new measures to protect juvenile fish. The mesh size in trawls was increased from 120 mm to 155 mm in 1977. A mesh size of 135 mm was only allowed in the fisheries for redfish in certain areas. Since 1998 a mesh size of 135 mm has been allowed in the codend in all trawl fisheries not using Polish chaefer . A quick closure system has been in force since 1976 with the objective to protect juvenile fish. Fishing is prohibited for at least two weeks in areas where the number of small fish in the catches has been observed by inspectors to exceed a certain percentage (25% or more of <55 cm cod and saithe, 25% or more of <45 cm haddock, and 20% or more of <33 cm redfish). If, in a given area, there are several consecutive quick closures the Minister of Fisheries can with regulations close the area for a longer time, forcing the fleet to operate in other areas.

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Inspectors from the Directorate of Fisheries supervise these closures in collaboration with the Marine Research Institute. In 2004, 73 such closures took place.

In addition to allocating quotas on each species, other measures are in place to protect fish stocks. Based on knowledge on the biology of various stocks, many areas have been closed temporarily or permanently, aimed at protecting juveniles. In addition, major spawning areas for cod, plaice, and catfish are closed during spawning time. Figure 2.3.2.7 shows a map of such legislation in force in 2004. Some of the closures were temporary, while other areas have been closed for decades. Furthermore, there are regulations on the mesh size in the gillnet fishery for cod.

No evaluation of the effect of the measures above has been made available to ICES.

Since the implementation of the catch rule in 1995 realized reference fishing mortalities have been in the range of 0.510.76, in the last four years about 0.6. The expected long-term fishing mortality by the application of the catch rule was 0.4. One may therefore conclude that the objectives of the management system have not been realized.

Quality of assessments and uncertainties

The resources in the area have generally been managed on the basis of fairly long and detailed time-series of data. There are well-known difficulties with the assessments, for example age readings of slow-growing species such as redfish and Greenland halibut. The problems are the same in these areas as elsewhere. Greenland halibut, pelagic redfish (Sebastes mentella) in the Irminger Sea (Subareas XII and XIV), and demersal S. mentella on the shelf (Subareas V, XII, and XIV) are the stocks with the most apparent need for improvements in data analysis and in the gathering of auxiliary information. Such required auxiliary information is trawl abundance or acoustic stock indices. The time-series with information on the commercial catch per unit of effort of these species are considered to be biased because the gears by which these species are fished have increased in efficiency over time. Present catch rates can therefore not be directly compared with those in previous periods. However, a marked decline in cpue is still indicative of a decline in stock abundance. Information on the development of these gears is required to correct for the bias. Comprehensive assessment of these large and widely distributed stocks is a challenging task which requires full-scale international cooperation.

Since the collapse of the fishery in the early 1990s the assessment of the Greenland cod stock has been impeded by a scarcity of data from the offshore areas. This scarcity will prevent a conventional age-based assessment in the near future.

For Greenland halibut the unresolved stock structure adds to the assessment uncertainty in combination with a non-synchronised development of fisheries in the entire areas of V and XIV, i.e. the cpue signals from fisheries differ between areas.

The assessments of Icelandic cod, haddock, saithe, herring, and Sebastes marinus are all done as analytical assessments, using landings, catch-at-age data, and age-based indices from standardized scientific surveys. The quality of the sampling from the commercial fishery is considered adequate for all these stocks. However, long-term data on discarding and other illegal activities are not available, hampering a full evaluation on the quality of the assessments. Discard data since 2002 are now available, showing relatively low discard rates (l 6%). These relatively low discard rates compared to what is generally assumed to be a side effect of a TAC system may be a result of various measures, including the flexibility within the Icelandic ITQ system. Since the time-series of discards is relatively short it is not included in the assessments.

All catch that is brought ashore must by law be weighed by a licensed body. The monitoring and enforcement is under the realm of the Directorate of Fisheries. Under the TAC system there are known incentives for misreporting, both with regards to the actual landings statistics as well as with regards to the species recorded. This results in bias in the landings data, but detailed quantitative estimates of how large this bias may be is not available. Information from the Directorate of Fisheries, partly based on investigations comparing export from fish processing plants with the amount of fish weighed in the landing process indicate that this bias may be in single digit rather than double digit percentages.

The primary objective of the scientific survey is to obtain accurate stock indicators for cod and haddock. The uncertainties in the assessment of the gadoid stocks are thus largely a reflection of the different accuracy of the survey data for different stocks. The probabilistic advice is based on estimates of uncertainty available for the gadoid stocks. This uncertainty is only a portion of the total uncertainty.

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Figure 2.3.2.1 Location of catches of cod, saithe, haddock, redfish, Greenland halibut, and others caught with bottom trawl 2007.

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Figure 2.3.2.2 Location of catches of cod, saithe, haddock, redfish, Greenland halibut, and others caught with longline in 2007.

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Figure 2.3.2.3 Location of catches of cod, saithe, haddock, redfish, Greenland halibut, and others caught with gillnets in 2007.

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Figure 2.3.2.4 Effort of the trawler fleet in 2000 2007. The dark colours show the areas of the greatest fishing effort to be off the southeastern to the western coast and off northwestern Iceland.

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Figure 2.3.2.5 Location of catches of capelin, Icelandic spring-spawning herring, and blue whiting with purse-seine and pelagic trawls in 2007.

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Figure 2.3.2.6 Cumulative plot for bottom trawl in 2007. An example probably describes this best. Looking at the figure above it can be seen from the dashed lines that 30% of the catch of haddock comes from hauls where haddock is less than 60% of the total catch, while only 4% of the catch of Greenland halibut comes from hauls where it is less than 50% of the total catch. 75% of the plaice is on the other hand caught in hauls where plaice is a minority of the catches. The figure also shows that 70% of the catch of Greenland halibut comes from hauls where nothing else is caught. For haddock, this is only the case inn 10% of the catch. Of the species shown in the figure plaice is the one with largest proportion as bycatch while Greenland halibut is the one with largest proportion caught in mixed fisheries.

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Figure 2.3.2.7 Overview of closed areas around Iceland in 2004. The boxes are of a different nature and can be closed for different time periods and gear type.

Closed forshrimp fishery.

Closed for Trawl andlongline fishery

Temporal closure for longline

Closed for bottom trawl fishery

Closed for pelagic fishery

Closed for fishery

Sortering grid mandatory

Closed for trawl and longlinefrom 15. feb-1.Oct.

Closed for bottomtrawl

Opened for fishery during 2 moths of the year

Closed for all fisheryClosed for fishery

Closed for herring fishery

Closed for lonline

Closed areas for different fisheries aroundIceland.

Smáfiskaskiljusvæði.

Closed for fishery during spawning of catfish

Closed for pelagictrawls

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Table 2.3.2.1 Overview of the 2006 2007 landings (in tonnes) of fish, shrimp, and Nephrops caught in Icelandic waters by the Icelandic fleet, categorized by gear type. Based on landing statistics of the Directorate of Fisheries. Zero refers to landings less than 1 t.

Species name Bot

tom

traw

l

Dan

ish

sein

e

Gill

net

Jigg

ers

Long

line

Oth

er

Pel

agic

traw

l

Pur

se s

ein

Tot

al

Capelin 0 0 0 0 0 0 23358 195741 219099Cod 81110 10357 23829 5723 71042 62 1309 1 193432Herring 1299 0 0 0 0 0 31484 99043 131826Haddock 45784 12708 1175 39 36244 3 184 1 96138Saithe 63473 1429 3808 3315 949 2227 0 75201Blue whiting 10 0 0 0 0 0 44844 0 44854Redfish 41953 953 131 102 1085 572 44796Atlantic wolffish 6812 1569 57 7 7958 18 16422Deepwater redfish 12940 0 1 0 2 114 13057Greenland halibut 10638 0 1115 11 35 11799Plaice 2445 3719 139 0 73 4 6381Ling 1687 212 635 8 3734 9 6285Tusk 99 1 40 7 4912 1 5059Greater argentine, 4666 0 0 102 4769Spotted wolffish 1515 11 10 0 2052 50 3638Lemon sole 1237 1452 1 0 3 0 2693Monkfish 893 389 1273 0 36 0 2591Witch 292 1738 0 0 2030Norway lobster 1876 1876Blueling 1462 93 14 151 17 1736Deep water prawn 1397 1397Dab 15 1055 6 0 4 0 1081Whiting 467 100 18 6 461 0 1052Atlantic mackerel 0 0 811 176 988Long rough dab 101 639 0 0 5 0 745Starry ray 147 223 11 0 149 0 530Halibut 176 38 19 1 244 1 480Megrim 69 216 0 0 0 285Skate 64 21 12 1 43 140Dogfish 5 5 47 0 25 0 0 82Roundnose grenadier, 61 0 1 62Greenland shark 23 4 1 29Black scabbard fish 23 0 0 23Shagreen ray 3 1 14 18Norway haddock 7 0 2 9Sailray 0 0 7 8Roughhead grenadier 7 7Lumpsucker 0 0 2 0 0 2Orange roughy 2 2Rabbitfish 1 0 0 0 0 1Porbeagle 0 0 0 1Other 61 8 61 0 2 1376 1 0 1509Total 282823 36936 32406 9209 129204 1440 105151 294963 892133