Assessment of the Cod Stock in NAFO Division 3M

Abstract

An assessment of the cod stock in NAFO Division 3M is performed. A Bayesian model, as used in the last assessments, was used to perform the analysis. Results indicate a fairly substantial increase in SSB, reaching a value well above Blim. The six-years retrospective plot shows that the recruitment is overestimated every year. Three year projections indicate that fishing at the Fstatusquo level should allow SSB to increase slowly, although abundance will remain at levels below observed at the beginning of the series. If the fishing mortality were return to the levels seen before 1995, stock recovery would become improbable