Updated assessment of the South African sardine resource using data from 1984‐2022

A quantitative assessment of the South African sardine resource has been updated to include data from 1984 to 2022, based on the previous stock structure hypothesis which assumes two components (‘west’ and ‘south’), separated at Cape Agulhas, but with some mixing. This model assumes no stock recruitment relationship during conditioning. The west component abundance is estimated to be around 200 000t – 240 000t, while the south component abundance is estimated to be around 330 000t ‐ 470 000t. These results again show that the model is sensitive to the inclusion of parasite prevalence‐at‐length data and further investigation into the most appropriate manner with which these data should be included in the model is warranted.