Proposals to Split Sardine Catch West and East of Cape Agulhas

Candidate Management Procedures (MPs) to be developed for use in managing the South African sardine and anchovy resources from 2014 are to be simulation tested against two key alternative sardine hypotheses: one assuming a single sardine stock (de Moor and Butterworth 2012a) and one assuming two mixing-stocks, with the split between “west” and “south” stocks assumed to occur at Cape Agulhas (de Moor and Butterworth 2013a). Alternative candidate MPs have been and will be proposed, with two key groups being those which recommend a single sardine TAC (regardless of the number of sardine stocks) and those which recommend a separate sardine TAC west and east of Cape Agulhas (again, regardless of the number of sardine stocks) (Figure 1).

This document considers the case when the underlying operating models upon which candidate MPs are being tested assumes two mixing-stocks of sardine, but the candidate MPs recommend only a single sardine TAC.