Beaked redfish (Sebastes mentella) is a slow-growing, long-lived, and late-maturing species found in deep waters. Based on the 2009 Workshop on Redfish Stock Structure, the Irminger Sea deep pelagic beaked redfish is considered a distinct biological stock occurring at depths exceeding 500 meters in NAFO Areas 1–2, ICES Subareas V, XII, and XIV and are found primarily in pelagic habitats and demersal habitats west of the Faroe Islands (ICES 2009).  ICES manages this stock as a distinct unit partly defined by depth and whose boundaries are based on the spatial pattern of the fishery to minimize mixed-stock catches (Cadrin et al. 2010). Russia considers this stock and the Irminger Sea shallow pelagic beaked redfish stock (also in NAFO Areas 1–2, ICES Subareas V, XII, and XIV) to be a single stock (ICES 2021).

As noted by the ICES Northwest Working Group (NWWG), this fishery (since 1998) includes two widely separated fishing grounds with pelagic redfish fished at different seasons and different depths, and (since 2000) the southwestern fishing grounds were extended into the NAFO Convention Area (NWWG 2021).