Assessment of the South African sardine resource using data from 1984-2015: initial results for a two mixing-stock hypothesis

The assessment of the South African sardine resource is in the process of being revised and updated using data available up to November 2015. Two primary hypotheses regarding the sardine stock structure have been agreed for investigation. The first considers sardine distributed off the west and south coasts of South Africa to form a single stock or population. The second considers the sardine to consist of a western stock and southern stock with some mixing between the stocks. This document presents initial results for this two mixing-stock hypothesis only.