Report of the Working Group on Elasmobranch Fishes (WGEF)

ICES WGEF is responsible for providing assessments and advice on the state of the stocks of sharks, skates, and rays throughout the ICES area. In 2024, WGEF provided advice for 31 stocks of skates and rays distributed in the Celtic Seas and Bay of Biscay/West Iberia ecoregions and two stocks of sharks distributed in the Northeast Atlantic. Models were revised in a benchmark process for three stocks of skates: thornback ray and cuckoo ray in Division 9.a (Atlantic Iberian waters) and thornback ray in Division 8.c (Cantabrian Sea).The advice resulting from the new assessment method (stochastic surplus production model in continuous time – SPiCT) recommend larger catches than previously for cuckoo ray in Divi-sion 9.a (+83%) and thornback ray in Division 8.c (+110%), despite the 15th percentile of removals at FMSY being used to advise of catch which was considered more precautionary than the standard 35th percentile. The advice remained at similar values for thornback ray in Division 9.a (-3.2%). Spurdog in the Northeast Atlantic was assessed again at Category 1, and a further six stocks were assessed at Category 2 level for the second time, with one stock (porbeagle shark in the Northeast Atlantic) having a roll-over of advice with no new assessment, given the lack of new biomass data. WGEF applied for the second time the empirical methods for stock assessment and catch advice developed by WKLIFE X. These methods were applied to eight category 3 stocks to pro-vide advice within the ICES MSY framework. The 15 category 5 and 6 stocks were not quantita-tively assessed and advice was provided using the precautionary approach. Discard estimates continue to remain uncertain due to the fact that elasmobranchs are primarily caught as bycatch in a variety of fisheries. Achieving precise and unbiased estimates would re-quire a high level of sampling effort. However, the group has made diligent efforts to collate and harmonize discard data (since 2009) categorized by country, fleet segment, and stock code. This has enabled the inclusion of discard data in this report for comprehensive presentation. Never-theless, for most stocks, advice is provided in terms of landings. No benchmark assessments have been proposed for 2025.