The assumptions associated with the indices of South African anchovy abundance provided by the Daily Egg Production Method

Past publications on the development and application of the Daily Egg Production Method (DEPM) to estimate South African anchovy abundance are reviewed. These indicate that the current assumptions in the anchovy assessment model that the time series of DEPM indices can be assumed to provide an absolute index of anchovy spawner biomass remain intact, despite recent developments in estimating anchovy maturity and the bias associated with the hydro‐acoustic survey.