Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) : report of the working group on harvest control rules (SGRST 08-02)

For a number of fish stocks, long-term management plans have been agreed and implemented. For those stocks not yet subject to long-term plans, the Commission must propose fishing opportunities that are sustainable inter alia in biological terms. Candidate harvest control rules were evaluated to determine the likely consequences of the application of such rules, for a typical range of biological stock situations currently encountered in Community waters. In total 34 different harvest rule scenarios were evaluated for setting TACs for two generalised fish stocks with different life history parameters. These scenario evaluations fall into two main groups: Evaluations of HCR rules based on the results from analytical assessments and evaluations of HCR rules when no analytical assessment is available. The performance of the harvest control rules are discussed and a number of modifications proposed.