Beaked redfish Sebastes mentella of the Irminger Sea – current view on the stock structure, its status and management measures

Abstract

The paper aims at giving a brief review of the population structure, abundance and biomass dynamics of beaked redfish of the Irminger Sea obtained during the trawl acoustic surveys and analytical assessment. The adequacy of the current fisheries management measures for redfish in NEAFC is assessed. It was shown, that recent findings of the foreign genetic research apparently contradict to the relevant population structure for beaked redfish of the Irminger Sea applied in ICES, which specifies four stocks of the species. The ICES’ position of the depressed shallow pelagic and deep pelagic redfish stocks lacks substantial evidence from the results of the surveys in 2018–2021 and analytical assessment carried out by the Russian experts for the single redfish stock. The results allow assessing the current state of the stock as ‘good’. Thus, ICES/NEAFC recommendations that there shall be no directed fisheries neither for the shallow pelagic redfish stock nor the deep pelagic redfish stock in the Irminger Sea and adjacent waters until 2024 are insufficiently substantiated and need to be revised.