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Commission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4–10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines. This report is the ninth of a suite of STECF EWG reports dedicated to the evaluation of the implementation of the Western Mediterranean Sea Multi-Annual management Plan (hereafter, MAP), following EWG reports 18-09, 18-13, 19-01, 19-14, 20-13, 21-01, 21- 13, 22-01. The group was requested to implement mixed fisheries bio-economic models to run a number of scenarios up to 2030 with varying parameters, to evaluate a fishing effort reductions for trawlers, longliners and netters in association to vessel number reductions for trawlers, increase in mesh size for trawlers, existing closure areas and catch limits for deep water shrimps (ARA and ARS) through five scenarios and draft a mixed fisheries advice. For all mixed fisheries models applied during the EWG (TOR 3), the data from the DCF official data calls and from the western Mediterranean stock assessments, were updated using data from EWG 22-09 (Western Mediterranean stock assessments) and EWG 22-10 (FDI datacall). The same set of updated data were also used to answer TOR 1 and TOR 2. The exploration of effort data time series (TOR 1) highlighted that in GSA7 the French OTB fleet >18m showed a decrease in fishing days counteracted by an increase of the corresponding fleet segments of French OTT which could be potentially due to a shift in gear use, although experts did not suggest specific causes that would drive this shift. The comparison of fishing days for trawlers (OTB, OTM, OTT, PTB, PTM and TBB as per EU regulation 2019/2236) declared in the FDI official datacall and reported in the 2020 and 2021 regulations were reported this year as well. Discrepancies were found also between 2021 data and the 2021 regulation (as per 2020) with the values reported in the regulation being always higher (for all countries but not for all fleet segments) than the values declared in the FDI datacall. Results suggest that effort is decreasing faster than the regulation for most fleet segments and that the reference period 2015-2017 might not be representative anymore of the effort dynamics of the last few years. For Spain and Italy reductions by 2021 are suggested to be higher than the expected reduction by 2022, while this does not happen for France. From the data quality checks very minor issues were highlighted and there was no reporting in the DTMT of these issues. EWG 22-11 would like to ask for clarifications to MSs concerning the association of gear type with the upper level of aggregation fishing technique as it was observed that odd matching were found which could undermine the calculation of fishing days in the comparisons with the yearly regulations. Specifically the gear OTB was often found under the PGP fishing technique and experts present at the EWG were not able to explain this match. The estimated F by gear and GSA (TOR2) allowed updating the analysis of the linear relationship between F and E. As in previous years a linear relationship consistent across GSAs and stocks was not found. The HKE, MUT and ARA stocks showed a linear relationship with OTB in some cases. For HKE 1567 the relationship did not hold once observed by GSA (although this could be a modelling artefact from the assessment model) or in EMU 2. MUT showed a linear relationship in GSA 6 and 7 with OTB and OTT (but results for GSA 7 should be taken with caution as there is a very strong variation in F for a lower variation of effort). ARA in EMU 1 by GSA (and on the overall stock 6-7) showed a linear relationship with OTB. No relationship was found for gears as LLS, GTR (except for MUT in 9) or GNS, neither for the stocks of DPS or ARS. EWG 22-11 suggests that running the analysis at metier level would give more meaningful results, although it should be noted that the metier is a very unstable resolution of fisheries, therefore difficult to define as data sources. To the methodological section of models (Section 5) two subsections were added, one on the models behavior during mid and long term projections and one on the relationship between biomass increase and economic gain. All models at the moment are suggested to be used for mid-term projections but not for long-term projections as the population dynamics are led either by stock recruitment relationships (BEMTOOL), which are not robust at the moment due to the nature of the data or led by recruitment stochasticity (IAM, ISIS-Fish and SMART), based on a random resampling of the time series but not accounting for potential environmental effects. This year for EMU 1 new analytical assessments were available to EWG 22-11 such as ARA 5, DPS 1 and DPS 5-6-7. In EMU 2, instead, 2 stocks were lost as it was not possible to have an updated analytical assessment due to data issues for MUT 10 and ARA 8-9-10-11. As ARA is one of the stocks with a catch limit defined by the EU Regulation 2022/110, the limitations due to the lack of assessment for this species when running the models in EWG 22-11, should be noted. Based on the final draft report from EWG 22-09, stock assessment of Western Mediterranean, which will be presented to STECF in November 2022, but has not yet been endorsed by STECF, the EWG observed that in 2020, 94% and, in 2021, 79% of the stocks were not at MSY. In 2022, the EWG shows that 73% of the stocks are not at MSY and 53% remain severely overfished. Some of the stocks could be already responding positively to the MAP measures, although the MAP has been implemented only since 2020 and the data available are only up to 2021. 9 out of 14 assessed stocks have decreasing fishing mortality, however, there are 4 stocks still behind transition to MSY of which two have declining biomass and increasing fishing mortality. Some stocks need particular attention for their low biomass level. EWG 22-09 identified as below the biomass reference point (Blim): Hake in GSAs 1-5-6-7, Hake in GSAs 8-9-10-11 and Blue and red shrimp in GSAs 1-2. In addition, five stocks are also below Bpa. Despite progress towards MSY, high levels of overfishing remains in particular for hake and deep-water shrimps. Models results (Section 6) showed that for EMU 1 (result only from IAM) none of the proposed scenarios (5 scenarios + status quo) achieved the objective of reaching FMSY by 2025. Red mullet in GSA 6 (MUT6) never reaches its Fmsy range during the simulation period (2022-2030) under any scenario, and hake in GSA 1-5-6-7 (HKE1567) is still above Fmsy in 2025. The other stock that is slightly behind the objectives is red mullet in GSA 1 (MUT1) with all scenarios. However, the other stocks (ARA12, ARA5, ARA67, NEP6, MUT7, DPS1 and DPS567) reach their FMSY range in 2025 with scenarios A to D. Only with the status quo scenario (scenario F) the FMSY range is not reached in 2025 for some of those stocks. Globally, all scenarios foresee some important negative economic impact for French and Spanish trawlers in the short and medium term with a decrease in their Gross Value Added. Even with scenario F (i.e. status quo), French trawler GVA is negative from 2022. This is due to the fuel price used in the simulation in 2022 and beyond from AER 2022 projections, where prices increased a lot compared to their initial values. Due to time constraints, it was not possible to have results from the ISIS-Fish model for EMU 1. For EMU 2 the setting of a maximum catch limit on ARA and ARS allows to approach FMSY for ARS, but not for HKE, even when in combination with other measures such as reduction of fishing days and number of vessels and change in selectivity. For ARS 8-9-10-11, NEP 9 and MUT 9 all scenarios implemented allow to reach FMSY in 2025 except for the status quo scenario (F). ARS, ARA and NEP stocks would benefit of all the scenarios, due to the re-allocation of the effort from the deep-water metier (OTB_DWS and OTB_DES) to the demersal (OTB_DES). This reallocation produces an increase in the fishing pressure on demersal fishing grounds, contributing to partly reduce the underutilization of red mullet in GSA 10, red mullet in GSA 9 and Norway lobster in GSA 9, but also increasing the F of hake. The total revenues and gross value added for the overall fleet are predicted to slightly increase with respect to the lowest values of the time series reached in 2020-2021. For scenarios A, B and D total revenues across all fleets will decrease compared to the SQ scenario (F), remaining above the recent values. A similar pattern is observed for gross value added. Simulations on fuel price increase of 120% (of the average fuel price in 2022) in 2023 onwards in EMU 1 showed an exacerbation on the GVA of fleet segments that already suffered from the management implementation. It should be highlighted that already with the "fuel option 1" (with fuel price in 2022 and onwards from AER projections), the economic performances are already negative, especially for French fleets, as the fuel price has strongly increased compared to 2021. Estimations of GVA in 2022, when effort reductions are still quite limited, are already negative suggesting that the negative GVAs are mainly due to the 2022 fuel price peak. In EMU 2 as well the main effect is to observe a lower GVA; specifically, the difference between the best performing scenario, that is B, and the status quo (F) is smaller. Here as well, the increase in fuel costs impacts more importantly on the GVA, compared to the decrease in fixed costs imposed by the effort limitations. For the application of the bio-economic models for the assessment of the development regarding the implementation of the West Med MAP it was decided to follow the methodology of the AER and, therefore, subsidies are not included in the calculations for income. The financial situation which the bio-economic models present for the year 2022 and beyond depend a lot on the assumptions regarding the development of fuel prices but include no mitigation measures for the fishing companies (like de minimis payments to cover parts of the increase in fuel costs 2022). Therefore, the modelling results show a lower level of gross value added compared to the real situation of the fishing companies. EWG 22-11 suggests that from an economic standpoint, it would make sense to conduct a detailed impact assessment (IA) for the further implementation of the West Med MAP. With such an assessment it would be possible to calculate possible scenarios (including possible mitigation and adaptation measures) regarding the implementation of effort reduction and the possible economic performance of the fishing fleets. The EU MSs affected by the management plan could then discuss possible mitigation and adaptation measures for the fishing sector. As such an IA is not requested by the West Med MAP it would have not follow the usual procedure within DG Mare and can be limited to assessments within the STECF context. EWG 22-11 concludes that the EWG chair and the STECF bureau should discuss with DG MARE how far such an impact assessment would be possible for the next EWG meeting in March 2023. Concerning economic indicators (Section 7), EWG 22-11 suggests that all the different bio- economic modules should report the same economic indicators and specific reference points should be defined in order to evaluate the economic results of the different simulated scenarios in a consistent way. The selected economic indicators should be harmonized with the ones applied by STECF for the assessment of the economic performance of the fleet (AER) and the “balance” indicators. Also, in the STECF report 18-15 (STECF 2018) indicators are proposed which could be possibly applied. Additionally EWG 22-11 highlights that there are no indicators on sociological characteristics in the bio-economic models so far. Some of the models give “social” indicators, but in general these are closely related to the economic ones (gross value added, crew share, employment) and they do not actually produce detailed results on the social impact of fisheries policies. Additional sections (Section 7) were added to review available information on technological creep in the western Mediterranean in the last ten years, but no information seems to be available now to account for this parameter within the models. A new section was dedicated to the development of a standardized ad hoc datacall for VMS and logbook data for MSs involved in the West Med MAP. The aim is to ease communication with MSs on the submission of these data and obtain a standardized format for all MSs that would fasten the work of experts in future EWGs. Due to time constraints, the two spatial modeling groups (SMART and ISIS-Fish) could not fulfill the scenarios requested in the TORs. The parameterization of such models is complex and time consuming, therefore to be able to respond to all TORs EWG 22-11 suggested that it would be very helpful to have scenarios at list a month before the beginning of the working group as it was done for EWG 22-01. Finally, in order to ease the work of EWGs concerned with the evaluation of effort and catch limit regime in the Western Mediterranean, catch at age matrices, F at age matrices and LFDs by GSA and gear for HKE and MUT stocks should be prepared in advance of the EWGs. This work could be held either during the western Mediterranean stock assessment EWG (to be evaluated with the chair of the EWG) or by a short ad hoc contract. European Union Published Refereed

Commission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4–10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines. This report is the eighth of a suite of STECF EWG reports dedicated to the evaluation of the implementation of the Western Mediterranean Sea Multi-Annual management Plan (hereafter, MAP), following EWG reports 18-09, 18-13, 19-01, 19-14, 20-13, 21-01 and 21-13. The group was requested to implement mixed fisheries bio-economic models to run a number of scenarios up to 2025 with varying parameters and up to 2030 with fixed parameters, to evaluate existing closure areas implemented since 2020 and 2022, maximum catch limits (MCLs) implemented since 2022 and draft a mixed fisheries advice. For all mixed fisheries models applied during the EWG, the data from the DCF official data calls and from the western Mediterranean stock assessments, were the same as the ones used during STECF EWG 21-13, as there were no updates since 2021. The non-spatially explicit mixed fisheries models, IAM (for EMU 1) and BEMTOOL (for EMU 2), focused on the scenarios evaluating MCLs on ARA, ARS and HKE. Reference MCLs for ARA and ARS where obtained from the Regulation EU 2022/110 and from STECF EWG 21-11, while for HKE were obtained solely from EWG 21-11. IAM was updated to differentiate between a coastal and a deep-water trawling within the Spanish fleet segments, as France does not have a deep-water fishery at present. As the model timescale has a yearly resolution, it was not possible to estimate the effect of a monthly MCL. The scenarios considered had a MCL for HKE, one for ARA, and one for both HKE and ARA. These scenarios were run for a decreasing MCL through time (forward scenario: aims at reaching catch at Fmsy by 2025) and an increasing MCL through time (inverse scenario: starting value is catch at Fmsy) accounting for the distribution of stocks by GSA, for a total of 10 scenarios alternative to the baseline. None of the scenarios allowed reaching Fmsy for all six species targeted by the MAP, except when applying a MCL on both ARA and HKE, simultaneously. The results for the HKE stock should be taken with caution as the MCL was applied only to trawlers in these scenarios, but this species can generally be targeted also by longliners and gillnetters. The economic consequences of scenarios accounting for a MCL on HKE, or both ARA and HKE, lead to a massive drop of GVA for the Spanish and French trawling fleets, while economic advantages are observed for longliners and gillnetters. BEMTOOL was updated and refined to consider the different types of fishing activity exerted by each fleet segment at metier level. The model timescale is set at a monthly resolution, so it was possible to run scenarios accounting for a monthly MCL (monthly flexibility was not considered). Only scenarios accounting for a MCL either for ARA or ARS where run, but never in combination (ARA+ARS), nor considering a MCL on HKE, for a total of eight scenarios: forward scenario, inverse scenario, monthly forward scenario, monthly inverse scenario, once with an MCL on ARA and once with an MCL on ARS. Implementing a MCL on the deep-water fisheries suggested an improvement for all stocks except for HKE. ARA and ARS would improve thanks to the control of the MCL, while MUT, DPS and NEP would stay within the upper and lower limits of Fmsy, despite the reallocation of fishing effort from deep to coastal fisheries. The implementation of a reverse MCL did not show a recovery of the stocks. Moreover, a MCL split by month seems to have a lower impact on the catches of ARA and ARS in the short term. The GVA shows an increase for the passive gears fleets (i.e., gillnetters and longliners) and a strong decrease for all trawling fleets in the first two years, with a stable trend over the following years. The spatially explicit mixed fisheries model ISIS-Fish also ran scenarios accounting for MCLs, but only for HKE in GSA 7, implementing a forward, an inverse and a monthly MCL for a total of four scenarios. The forward scenario led to fishing mortalities below Fmsy in 2025 because the value defined for MCL did not account for biomass rebuilding. On the other hand, the fishing mortality achieved using the HCR in the inverse scenario, never fell below Fmsy, because of the unrestricted catches of netters and long-liners. In terms of revenues, both MCL paths led to strong decreases for trawlers. The spatially explicit mixed fisheries models, ISIS-Fish (GSA 7) and SMART (EMU 2), focused on the evaluation of closure areas: existing closure areas, existing closure areas which were seasonal to become permanent, existing closure areas extended to all fishing gears, additional closure areas (only EMU 2), expansion of closure areas by 50% (only EMU 2) and expansion of closure areas by 100% (only EMU 2). ISIS-Fish was applied only for HKE in GSA 7 being the first time this model was used within this working group. The extension of closure areas to all fishing gears (passive gears on top of trawlers) in GSA 7 did not show any improvement, while shifting from a seasonal to a permanent closure showed a decrease in F and an increase in SSB. A decrease of catches of juvenile hake of 20% was observed both with seasonal and permanent closures. Catches of adults increased due to recovery of the stock and considering the low level of initial catches. It should be noted that revenues increased for passive gears but decreased for trawlers. SMART was updated, increasing the spatial resolution of the spatial grid of the model, to be in line with outputs of the ad-hoc contracts preceding the EWG and with ISIS-Fish. None of the scenarios considered for EMU 2 evaluating spatial closures allowed to reach Fmsy by 2025, except for MUT in 10 and NEP in 9 which remains underutilized. SSB shows, nevertheless, an increase across years. None of the scenarios allowed to reduce catches by 20% for all species. All scenarios are associated with a sharp decrease in revenues; spatial closures not widened or seasonal would involve lower decrease of the profits than widened and permanent closures. Loss of profits is more evident for VL12-18 and VL18-24, although the loss is evident for all fleet segments. During EWG 22-01 no explicit comparison between the implementation of an effort regime and a MCL regime was run. The group advices to do so accounting for the limitations encountered in the implementation of MCLs during EWG 22-01. It should be noted that the reduction of GVA is estimated in the short term (up to 2025), but further tests should be done to estimate the trend of GVAs in the mid- and long-term. It is highlighted that given the large number of other species exploited beyond the key ones included in the management plan and in the simulation models, the actual socio-economic impact of the plan remains uncertain. Also, the economic results are presented considering a constant number of vessels, and would differ if the number of vessels is reduced. Additionally, it is difficult to evaluate the socio-economic impact of the MAP on the fleets as at present no socio-economic reference points are used to compare the results against those. European Union Submitted Non Refereed

The working group was held in remotely, from 6th to 10th Sept 2021. The meeting was attended by 20 experts in total, including two STECF members and two JRC experts along with one observer. The objective of the Mediterranean Methodology EWG 21-11 was to carry out assessments and provide draft advice for stocks identified in the ToR supplied by STECF. An initial plenary session commenced at 09:00 on the first day. The ToRs were discussed and examined in detail. Stocks were allocated to participants based on expertise. An ad-hoc ftp repository was created to share documents, data and scripts and prepare the report. The stock assessments were evaluated by all participants. Following EWG 21-02 data preparation EWG data was available for assessments much earlier in the meeting, in all cases by Tuesday night. For stocks with assessment issues some sensitivity test were possible, but for DWRS in GSA 1,5,6,7 exploratory assessments were not fully concluded given time limitations. Over the week plenary sessions were held each day to monitor progress and share results. The overall conclusions for each stock were discussed and finalized in plenary on the Friday. After the main meeting it became apparent that the selected assessment for red and blue shrimp in GSA 1 had issues with the form of the model, the model was re-examined and details circulated to all EWG participants. A short 45minute plenary was held on Tuesday 21st and a revised assessment was agreed. This report contains this final assessment and advice based on it. European Commission European Union, Joint Research Centre Published Refereed

Commission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4–10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines. This report is from STECF Expert Working Group 21-15: 2021 stock assessments of demersal stocks in Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas from the meeting held remotely from 18th to 22th October 2021. A total of 9 fish stocks were evaluated. One stock had prior advice from 2020 for 2021 and 2022, and this is reiterated here. Index advice for 2022 and 2023 is provide for one other stock. The EWG reports age based assessments and short term forecasts for 5 of the remaining 7 stocks and surplus production assessments for two stocks. The content of the report gives the STECF terms of reference, the basis of the evaluations and advice, summaries of state of stock and advised based on either the MSY approach for assessed stocks or the precautionary approach for category 3 based advice. The report contains the full stock assessment reports for the 7 assessments, the exploration of assessments and category 3 evaluations for the remaining five stocks. The report also contains the STECF observations and conclusions on the assessment report. These conclusions come from the STECF Plenary meeting November 2021. European Commission European Union, Joint Research Centre Published Refereed

The working group was held in remotely, from 12th to 20th Sept 2020. The meeting was attended by 14 experts in total, including two STECF member and two JRC experts. The EWG had two observers who attended part time. The objective of the Mediterranean Methodology EWG 20-15 was to carry out assessments and provide draft advice for stocks identified in the ToR supplied by STECF. An initial plenary session commenced at 09:30 on the first day. The ToRs were discussed and examined in detail. Stocks were allocated to participants based on expertise. An ftp repository was created ad-hoc to share documents, data and scripts and prepare the report. The stocks were evaluated by the GSA groups identified in the ToRs. Most of the work was concluded by Tuesday 20 Sept, after 7 full days of work, and some additional work at the weekend. Over the 7 working days plenary sessions were held each day to monitor progress and share results. The overall conclusions for each stock were discussed and finalized in plenary on the Tuesday. European Commission European Union, Joint Research Centre Published Refereed

The working group was held in remotely, from 7th to 18th Sept 2020. The meeting was attended by 21 experts in total, including three STECF members and four JRC experts. The EWG had two observers who attended part time. The objective of the Mediterranean Methodology EWG 20-09 was to carry out assessments and provide draft advice for stocks identified in the ToR supplied by STECF. An initial plenary session commenced at 09:30 on the first day. The ToRs were discussed and examined in detail. Stocks were allocated to participants based on expertise. An ftp repository was created ad-hoc to share documents, data and scripts and prepare the report. The stock assessments were evaluated by the by all participants. Most of the work was concluded by Tuesday 15 Sept, after 7 full days of work, and some additional work at the weekend. However, two stocks remained to be completed, this extra work was carried out largely by two participant with support from small subgroups. The WG met for a final session on Friday 18 Sept. to conclude the work on one stock. Following extensive trials the last stock could not be assessed with an analytic age based assessment and advice was based on the MEDITS index. Over the first 7 working days plenary sessions were held each day to monitor progress and share results. The overall conclusions for each stock were discussed and finalized in plenary on the Tuesday, though the last assessment was finalised on the following Friday, the last day of the meeting. European Commission European Union, Joint Research Centre Published Refereed

The second Workshop on Tradeoffs Scenarios between the Impact on Seafloor Habitats and Provisions of catch/value (WKTRADE2) was established to provide input on trade-offs aspects to the Working group on Fisheries Benthic Impact and Trade-offs (WGFBIT). As such, the workshop was tasked to: 1) demonstrate the applicability of a set of approaches to better estimate fisheries revenue; 2) establish ways to assess effort reduction scenarios; and 3) explore how to (better) incorporate social factors associated with fisheries. The workshop suggests that to improve estimates of the “value” of an area to fisheries that the contribution margin (income from landings minus variable costs) should be calculated. To do this two complementary approaches (disaggregation and mechanistic) are presented and can be developed using the current ICES VMS and logbook data, supplemented with economic data layers. A modular workflow to integrate the variables into the assessment is also presented. Furthermore, the workshop found that redistribution of total revenue among individual fishers and fishers’ communities will need to be considered to accurately predict displacement effects and impact evaluation on fisheries economics. Applying predictive modelling techniques adds to assessing a static picture (current fishing activity) because it considers displacement effects which may elucidate increased pressure on essential fish habitats, sensitive vulnerable habitats, or previously untrawled areas. To better identify trade-offs between ecological, economic and social factors for use by the ICES working group WGFBIT, the workshop recommends also using integrative approaches (e.g. bioeconomic models, stakeholder engagement) that account for direct linkages between fish, fisheries and benthos dynamics to address issues related to MSFD, CFP and spatial management plans in a consistent way. When considering the effects of displacement the contribution margin should be accounted for as the fishing closures are likely to have indirect (positive or negative) effects. For example, protecting part of the fish stocks might lead to better catch rates and therefore fuel savings, etc. The workshop also found static models to be operational and more easily used to identify impacted fishing fleets. While, dynamic modelling approaches allow for the adaptation of fishing fleets (e.g. displacement, gear modifications), potentially mitigating the estimated impact of spatial and temporal restrictions. Static approaches are easy to use in stakeholder processes, and can facilitate stakeholder engagement. Future development of static and dynamic models will need to account for the influence of other activities (e.g. closures due to wind farm) on fisheries activities. Running scenarios using dynamic models will indicate which areas are most valuable to fisheries after spatial management scenarios are proposed. This elicits the socio-economic valuable fisheries areas. The workshop’s focus was on the spatial management scenarios so far identified by the working group WGFBIT, but the suggested workflow can also be used to address other scenarios, e.g. technical measures aimed at reducing gear penetration depths, disturbance effects and improving selectivity, habitat credits approaches that define credits related to the sensitivity of habitat and convey credits to the fishing industry to manage either collectively or individually. The workshop also identified some follow-up work that working group WGFBIT could take on to both to improve the current scenario testing on spatial restrictions, as well as how to deal with fleet adaptation/effort displacement in reaction to the spatial restrictions. This work would benefit by stronger links to ICES working groups WGECON and WGSOCIAL to ensure the required fisheries economic expertise.

Commission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4–10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines. . This report is from STECF Expert Working Group 19-16: 2019 stock assessments of demersal stocks in the Adriatic Sea from the meeting in Rome Italy from 14th to 20th October 2019. A total of seven fish species were evaluated for GSA 17, 18 and 19. The EWG reports age based assessments and short term forecasts for all seven stocks. The content of the report gives the STECF terms of reference, the basis of the evaluations and advice, summaries of state of stock and advised based on either the MSY approach for assessed. The report contains the full stock assessment reports for the seven assessments, and three exploratory assessments for deep-water rose shrimp for each GSA separately. Advice for deep-water rose shrimp is based on the combined stock, the report also contains the STECF observations and conclusions on the assessment report. These conclusions come from the STECF Plenary meeting November 2019. European Commission European Union, Joint Research Centre Published Refereed

Cephalopod assemblages at the scale of the entire Mediterranean Sea were analysed using information from 2 decades of standardized scientific bottom trawl surveys. Western and eastern assemblages (6 yr of data) were compared using a combined approach of multivariate ordination techniques and non-linear regressions. These methods enabled us to distinguish assemblages and simultaneously analyse the influence of geographic, bathymetric and environmental (sea surface temperature and chlorophyll a concentration) gradients on observed community patterns. Despite few differences in species composition between sub-basins, the relative contribution of species differed. Bathymetry was the primary structural driver for the cephalopod communities of both basins, and contributed to 3 assemblages (shallow water, upper slope and middle slope). Winter temperature influenced community assemblages more strongly in the western than in the eastern basin, in contrast to a small but consistent winter productivity influence on community assemblages in both basins. Thus, the environmental parameters analysed did not cause an immediate change in cephalopod assemblages, but rather an effect lagged by several months. Differences in the relative importance of environmental drivers show that different processes operate in the 2 basins. These results demonstrate similarities and differences between Mediterranean basins regarding important cephalopod functional groups. This information should help integrative ecosystem management approaches currently used in fisheries and conservation management.

The STECF expert working group "EWG 1419 - Mediterranean assessment part 2", has convened in Rome during 19-23 January 2015 and addressed a series of issues as requested by DG MARE in the correspomnding terms of references. The detailed output of this working group efforts is included in the following report. The report was reviewed by the STECF spring plenary during 13-17 April 2015

Data on chondrichthyes fished during 16 surveys as part of the MEDITS project carried out from 1994 to 2009 on trawlable bottoms up to 800m depth in all seas around Italy are presented and discussed. From a total of 7 GSAs (10255 hauls) 38 elasmobranch species, including 21 rays and skates, 16 sharks and 1 chimaera, have been identified. Only 10 species occurred in all GSAs, 31 in the Strait of Sicily and19 in the South Adriatic Sea. The number of species caught per year ranged from 23 to 31.

Within the STOCKMED project, a methodological framework has been developed for identifying stock units and related boundaries of fishery resources according to a multidisciplinary approach. The present document describes the application of the developed framework to 19 fish and shellfish species of fishery interest in the Mediterranean. In Mediterranean, very few studies about the identification of populations exist and the knowledge of stock structure is still very fragmentary, related to few species, and limited in terms of spatial scale. In this context, this study represents the first attempt to face up with the issue of stock units identification at a Mediterranean scale using a formal multidisciplinary approach. It intends to be a simple and transparent approach which arises from an original conjugation of methods of spatial analysis, multi-criteria analysis and Geographic Information Systems. The results of the application of the STOCKMED methodological framework to 19 fish and shellfish species of fishery interest in the Mediterranean have been presented. The most plausible Hypotheses of stock structure have been identified. In some cases, there is agreement between the ranking based on the mean Cohen's Kappa and the acceptability analysis, suggesting that a single hypothesis is highly favoured. In other cases, the discrimination of the alternatives provided by both mean Cohen's Kappa and acceptability analysis is too weak to express a single preference. It must be pointed out that despite the framework has been conceived to be applicable even in poor-data situations, the reliability of results is strongly dependent from adequate data availability within the appropriate spatial scale.

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10 pages, 3 figures, supplementary material https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsz071, This study evaluates the fishing pressure exerted by the most common recreational and professional, small-scale fishing practices on vulnerable target and bycatch species in coastal and offshore waters of the western Mediterranean. By combining multiple data sources, we assembled a unique dataset on catches at multiple sites in these areas by recreational (RF) and small-scale fisheries (SSF), covering the period from 1997 to 2015. Furthermore, a framework with which to identify the vulnerable species among all the species caught is provided; it is based on the IUCN Red List, international conventions for the protection of flora and fauna, the Habitats Directive and the intrinsic vulnerability index of marine fish. Overall, about a quarter of exploited species targeted by SSF and RF in coastal waters were vulnerable, making up nearly 50% of the total SSF catch and nearly 20% of the total recreational catch. In offshore waters, 100% of the RF and SSF catch was made up of vulnerable species. Among the species caught as bycatch in both areas by SSF and RF, there was a total of 27 vulnerable vertebrate species, which included birds, cetaceans, elasmobranchs and sea turtles. Our results highlight the need to differentiate between different fishing methods or gears when studying the fishing impacts on vulnerable species. The results also indicate that, although RF and SSF are often considered to have a relatively low ecological impact, a range of different fishing methods are affecting vulnerable species in coastal or offshore waters in the western Mediterranean Sea, be they targeted or taken unintentionally as bycatch, This study was carried out within the framework of the EU Research Project SAFENET project (“Sustainable Fisheries in EU Mediterranean Waters through Network of MPAs.”, Call for proposals MARE /2014/41, Grant Agreement n. 721708). S. Biton-Porsmoguer benefited from a postdoctoral fellowship (Reference ROMP–2017–200053791), With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)