ICES. 2019. Working Group on Southern Horse Mackerel, Anchovy and Sardine (WGHANSA).

The Working Group on Southern Horse Mackerel, Anchovy and Sardine (WGHANSA1) met by correspondence from 3 to 7 June 2019, and in Madrid from the 25 to the 28 of November 2019, and was chaired by Alexandra Silva (Portugal). There were 13 participants from France, Portugal, Spain and UK. The main task of WGHANSA was to assess the status the stocks of sardine in the Celtic Seas and English Channel (pil.27.7), sardine in the Bay of Biscay (pil.27.8abd), sardine in the Cantabrian Sea and Atlantic Iberian waters (pil.27.8c9a), anchovy in the Bay of Biscay (ane.27.8), anchovy in Atlantic Iberian waters (ane.27.9a; components west and south), horse mackerel in Atlantic Iberian waters (hom.27.9a) and jack mackerel in the Azores (jaa.27.10). Assessments and short-term forecasts were updated according to the stock annexes. There is no assessment method adopted for pil.27.7 due to the lack of data. The stock of pil.27.8abd was assessed as category 1 for the first time, following an interbenchmark. Recruitment has been above the average, the spawning–stock biomass declined and fishing mortality steeply increased in 2010–2012. SSB is fluctuating above MSY Btrigger and F2018 is above FMSY and below Fpa. This year, the DEPM datapoint for 2017 was included in the pil.27.9a assessment for the first time, following a revision of the survey data. The stock has decreased since 2006 and stabilized to a historical low since 2012. The biomass of age 1 and older fish has been decreasing since 2006 and reached the lowest historical value in 2015. It has since increased slightly but is below Blim since 2011. Recruitment has been below the time-series average since 2005. Recruitment in 2018 was around the geometric mean of the last five years. Fishing mortality has been decreasing from a peak in 2011. In 2018, it was the lowest in the time-series and below Fpa and Flim. The stock size indicator for anchovy in 9a.west decreased 90% from 2018 to 2019 (4129 t), after a period of an increasing trend since 2014. The harvest rate decreased 67% from management year 2017 to 2018 being below the median of the historical time-series.The relative spawning–stock biomass of the south component of the anchovy 9.a stock has fluctuated without a trend over the time-series, with most of the values above Bpa. From 2018 to 2019, the relative SSB decreased 5% but is still well above Bpa. Relative Fishing mortality (F) has fluctuated with no clear trend. From management year 2017 to 2018, relative F decreased 93%. The SSB of horse mackerel in Division 9.a fluctuated from 1992, the beginning of the assessment period, to 2012–2013 and afterwards increased continuously to a historical maximum, in 2018. The consistently high recruitment since 2011 has contributed to the SSB increase. Fishing mortality was 0.029 year -1 in 2018, showing a 29% decrease compared to 2017. Fishing mortality has been below FMSY over the whole time-series. The spawning–stock biomass has been above MSY Btrigger over the whole time-series. The exploration of data on anchovy abundance-at-age from juvenile surveys IBERAS-JUVESAR and ECOCADIZ-RECLUTAS indicated the series are still short to conclude about their future incorporation into the assessments. The analyses of internal consistency of the indices and of their consistency with spring acoustic surveys showed promising results for ECOCADIZ-RECLUTAS and pointed out the need to revisit the results of some of the surveys, particularly the IBERAS_JUVESAR series. For sardine, 0-group abundance from IBERAS-JUVESAR (2013–2019) combined with data from an earlier autumn survey, SAR-PT-AUT (discontinued in 2008) covering the northwestern Iberian waters, showed a significant correlation with the abundance of age 1 individuals in surveys carried out in the following spring