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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The joint session of the Working Group on Stock Assessment of demersal species (WGSAD) and the Working Group on Blackspot seabream (WGSBR) on blackspot seabream in geographical subareas (GSAs) 1 and 3 was held online from 30 to 31 May 2023. In order to provide advice to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries (SAC) on the blackspot seabream fisheries, the session had a twofold objective: i) to update the last stock assessment with the new data for the reference year 2022 in GSAs 1 and 3; and ii) to review the information available to propose a common minimum conservation reference size (MCRS), a period for temporal closures and the identification of the nursery areas to protect juveniles as potential measures for the proper management of the fishery. In addition, the objectives and scope of a second meeting of the WGSBR in coordination with the Small-Scale Fishers’ Forum were discussed and the next steps towards the preparation of the meeting were agreed upon. After the run of the updated assessment model, the working group concluded that the population of blackspot seabream in the Strait of Gibraltar continues to deplete, with some alarming indicators such as the low levels of SSB (below Blim), and the total biomass (males and females) that reached the lowest value of the historical series in 2022 (242 tonnes).