Baltic Fisheries Assessment Working Group (WGBFAS)

The main ToR of WGBFAS is to assess the status and produce a draft advice on fishing opportunities for 2024 for the following stocks:

· Sole in Division 3.a, SDs 20–24 (Skagerrak and Kattegat, western Baltic Sea; catch advice)

· Cod in Kattegat SD 21 (catch advice)

· Cod in SDs 22–24 (western Baltic; catch advice)

· Cod in SDs 24–32 (eastern Baltic; catch advice)

· Herring in SDs 25–27, 28.2, 29 and 32 (central Baltic Sea; catch advice)

· Herring in SD 28.1 (Gulf of Riga; catch advice)

· Herring in SDs 30-31 (Gulf of Bothnia; catch advice)

· Sprat in SDs 22–32 (Baltic Sea; catch advice)

· Plaice in SDs 21–23 (Kattegat, Belt Seas, and the Sound; catch advice)

· Plaice in SDs 24–32 (Baltic Sea, excluding the Sound and Belt Seas; catch advice)

· Brill in SDs 22-32 (Baltic Sea; stock status advice for years 2024, 2025 and 2026)

· Dab in SDs 22-32(Baltic Sea; stock status advice for years 2024, 2025 and 2026)

The working group fulfilled the ToRs in assessing the stock status and produced draft advice, including, where relevant, forecasts for fishing opportunities for all stocks with one exception. The assessment for cod in SDs22-24 (western Baltic) was downgraded from category 1 to category 3 due to unreliable F estimates. However, trends in SSB are still considered reliable and are used as basis for the advice. The WG was not requested to produce advice for four flounder stocks in the Baltic Sea (flounder in SD22-23, flounder in SDs 24-25, flounder in SDs 26+28, and flounder in SDs 27, 29-32) and turbot in SDs 22-32). For these stocks, however, data were com-piled and updated, and update assessments were conducted. In the introductory chapter of this report the WG, in agreement with the other ToRs, considers and comments on the ecosystem and fisheries overviews, reviews the progress on benchmark processes, identifies the data needed for next year’s data call with some suggestions for improvements in the data call, and summarizes general and stock-specific research needs. The introduction further summarizes the work of other WGs relevant to WGBFAS, and the assessment methods used. Finally, the introduction presents a brief overview of each stock and reviews the recently published work on ecosystem effects on fish populations in the Baltic Sea. The analytical models used for the stock assessments were SAM, Stock Synthesis (SS) and SPiCT. For most flatfish (data limited stocks), CPUE trends from bottom-trawl surveys were used in the assessment.