WGMIXFISH holds two meetings:
- WGMIXFISH-ADVICE aims to produce mixed fishery projections according to tested methodology and relating these to each stock’s single-species advice.
- WGMIXFISH-METHODS focuses on further methodological development and documentation.
WGMIXFISH-ADVICE currently provides advice considerations for four case studies: Bay of Biscay, Celtic Sea, Iberian Waters, and North Sea. Management scenarios and model configurations differ among the case studies, but all use a similar underlying framework to assess possible incompatibilities among single species advice levels (e.g. total allowable catch, TAC) when caught together in a mixed fishery context. Models consider historical data on the relationship between fishing effort and catches for each fleet, gear, and stock interaction (“catchability") in order to inform future scenario projections. Results are used to identify stocks with limiting TACs (“choke" species) and to inform alternate advice levels that may better reflect management goals under mixed fishery conditions.
