Whiting (Merlangius merlangus) is endemic to the northeastern Atlantic, including the Mediterranean and Black Seas. In the north-west European shelf seas, it has been assessed and managed on the basis of four stocks: 1) the North Sea and the English Channel, 2) the Skagerrak, 3) the West of Scotland, and 4) the Irish Sea (ICES, 2013a). However, these stock units may not be representative, either of biologically discrete populations or of functional fishery areas (ICES, 2005). There is some evidence for a north-south split in the North Sea and for links between Divisions IVa (North Sea) and VIa (West of Scotland), but stock identity remains an unresolved issue (ICES, 2014a).

A complex population structure for whiting in the North Sea has been proposed, based on studies about whiting movements, life-history traits, genetic data, identification of spawning aggregation, as well as on population temporal asynchrony observed in SSB, recruitment, and egg abundance between areas. The benchmark of 2018 (ICES 2018) concluded that the literature and provided data did not suffice to revise management units for this stock. As before, the new assessment was run for the combined North Sea and Eastern Channel (27.4 and 27.7d). Exploratory SURBAR assessments were run for individual components (northern and southern components) and compared to the combined stock (ICES 2022)​.