NOT TO BE CITED WITHOUT PRIOR REFERENCE TO THE AUTHOR(S) Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Serial No. N4853 NAFO SCR Doc. 03/35 SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL MEETING – JUNE 2003 Assessment of Demersal Redfish in NAFO Subarea

Two species of redfish of commercial interest occur off West Greenland inshore and offshore, golden redfish (Sebastes marinus L.) and deep-sea redfish (Sebastes mentella Travin). SSB and recruitment indices for golden redfish decreased drastically from 1982 and have remained significantly below the average level since 1989. Taking into account the recent very low SSB and the recruitment failure together with the absence of golden redfish in the Greenland surveys, the stock of golden redfish in Subarea 1 is considered to be severely depleted with no signs of recovery. The deep-sea redfish SSB has been extremely low since 1989. The deep-sea redfish show high variation in recruitment. Good recruitment has been seen in 1997, 2000 and 2001, while the recruitment in 2002 again was very poor. Substantial numbers of redfish are discarded in the shrimp fishery, and concern must be expressed about the continuing failure of the juveniles to rebuild the pre-mature and mature stock components. From Oct. 1 2000, sorting grids have been mandatory in the shrimp fishery and this will hopefully reduce the amount of juvenile redfish in the by-catch significantly. Considering the depleted SSBs, the recruitment potential of the very abundant early life stages at an age of 0-2 years to the Subarea 1 stocks remains unclear.