Summary of ICES advice, June 2010 for plaice in the North Sea:
Stock satus
The stock is well within precautionary boundaries.
Harvest control rule
There is an EU mangement plan that is not formally agreed by Norway. ICES is evaluating the plan.
Management advice
Following the transition scheme towards the ICES MSY framework results in 64 200 t human consumption landings in 2011 and expected discards of 41 700 t. Within the Precautionary Approach human consumption landings up to 144 000 t could be taken in 2011.
Comments by Institute of Marine Research (IMR)
IMR supports the advice given by ICES.
The Precautionary Approach F is rather high for this stock (0.60). The transition scheme towards the ICES MSY framework results in considerably lower F (0,23). This gives lower landings in in 2011, but will ensure larger stock and higher landings in the long term.
Key numbers
Critical spawning stock(Blim) = 160 000 tonnes
Precautionaryl spawning stock(Bpa) = 230 000 tonnes
Critical fishing mortality (Flim) = 0,74
Precautionaryl fishing mortality (Fpa) = 0,60
Expected fishing mortality in 2010: F = 0,24
Expected spawning stock in 2011: 482 000 tonnes
