In areas for which sufficient data were available, an age-structure assessment method was used (SAM). SAM makes use of commercial catch-at-age and survey indices by age and can cope with omission of poor quality or missing data. It provides estimates of stock biomass and fishing mortality with confidence intervals. It is a stock assessment approach which is used widely across the ICES area. The data utilised in the assessment are collected according to standard procedures which have been in operation at MD for many years.