Press Release for the 10th Scientific Committee
The NPFC Scientific Committee (SC) met from 16 to 19 December 2025 in person with remote participation via video conferencing. The meetings were attended by the NPFC Members (Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Chinese Taipei, the United States of America and Vanuatu), observers from inter- and non-governmental organizations as well as invited experts.
The Scientific Committee reviewed reports and recommendations from its subsidiary groups and provided scientific advice to the Commission with respect to the management of fisheries resources and protection of marine ecosystems in the NPFC Convention Area. The outcomes of the SC subsidiary group meetings reviewed by the SC include:
• scientific advice on splendid alfonsino, North Pacific armorhead and sablefish;
• stock assessment reports for Pacific saury and chub mackerel;
• information for the interim harvest control rule (HCR) for Pacific saury;
• progress in developing age-structured models for Pacific saury stock assessment that may also serve as an operating model for the MSE for PS;
• progress in vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME) identification; and
• draft assessments of the impact of bottom fisheries on VMEs conducted by some Members and plan to finalize these assessments next year.
The SC reviewed the progress of three small working groups for other priority species (Japanese flying squid, Japanese sardine, blue mackerel) which worked intersessionally toward assessment of these stocks. The SC established a new SSC on Japanese Sardine (SSC JS) to advance stock assessment for this species and developed Terms of Reference for SSC JS. The SC reviewed a prototype database for scientific data and agreed to further develop and implement it in the next year. The SC also responded to the tasks from the 9th Commission meeting and agreed on the process to continue its work on these tasks, including stock status templates, frequency of benchmark and update stock assessments, fisheries-dependent and fisheries-independent indicators of trend for stocks without NPFC stock assessments, science-based management options for operationalizing the precautionary approach, a work plan to produce climate-resilient scientific advice, provision and analysis of gear specific data for chub mackerel, and clarification of the correspondence of fishing days and the level of catch in relevant fleets for chub mackerel. The SC updated its 5-year Research and Work Plans, addressed issues related to data collection, management and security, and discussed recent and future cooperation with other organizations to facilitate the implementation of its Work Plan.
The next SC meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place in Japan from 22-25 January 2027, with preceding meetings of the Technical Working Group on Chub Mackerel Stock Assessment (TWG CMSA), Small Scientific Committee on Bottom Fish and Marine Ecosystems (SSC BF-ME) and SSC on Pacific Saury (SSC PS) from 11-21 January.
The meeting reports will be available on the NPFC website in February 2026. For more information visit the meeting web page: https://www.npfc.int/meetings or contact the NPFC Secretariat secretariat@npfc.int
