Estimates of stock size of Northeast Arctic cod and haddock from survey data 1986/1987

Abstract

Combined acoustic and bottom trawl survey for cod and haddock were carried out in the Svalbard area in autumn 1986 and in the Barents Sea during the winter 1987. An acoustic survey for spwaning cod was carried out in March 1987 in the Lofoten area. The results show that the stocks are still increasing, but not as fast as previous surveys have indicated. One possible reason for this is that fish abundance in relatively shallow waters may have been generally overestimated by the current acoustic survey method.