Report of the Working Group for the Assessment of Demersal Stocks in the North Sea and Skagerrak (WGNSSK), 30 April – 7 May 2014 ICES HQ, Copenhagen, Denmark

The ICES Working Group for the Assessment of Demersal Stocks in the North Sea and Skagerrak (WGNSSK) met 30 April–7 May 2014 at ICES Headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. There were 26 participants (four by correspondence) from 9 countries. The main terms of reference for the Working Group were: to update, quality check and report relevant data for the working group, to update and audit the assessment of the stocks, to produce a first draft of the advice on the fish stocks and fisheries under consideration, to prepare for benchmarks next year and to update the description of major regulatory changes and comment on the potential effects of such changes. Ecosystem changes have been analytically considered in the assessments for cod, haddock and whiting in the form of time varying natural mortalities estimated by the ICES Working Group on Multi Species Assessment Methods (WGSAM)