The introduction of high survivability exemptions from the EU landing obligation has raised questions on how they relate to ICES stock advice and the management of quotas (TACs). Where discard rates are high, and survival rates are limited, substantial quantities of dead discards are generated. On the other hand, high survival rates may result in limited impacts of discarding despite high discard rates. Therefore, to achieve agreed levels of fishing mortality, dead discards should be accounted for in the stock assessment and the advice derived from it. The inclusion of discard survival in stock assessments has wider application also since it can improve estimates of fishing mortality and in turn enhance scientific advice on fishing opportunities.
WKSURVIVE was established to explore and progress the inclusion of discard survival in stock assessments and was aimed at bringing together researchers with expertise in conducting discard survival experiments and researchers with expertise in stock assessments.
