<p>The purpose of the sand eel dredge survey is to collect sand eels buried in the seabed and compare catches (number and age composition) with the previous year's collections to assess the year class strength of sand eel in area 1r, 2r and 3r of the different areas adopted by ICES in 2016. Data from the dredge survey is the basis for calculating an index, which is used in the stock assessment for sand eel in the North Sea.</p>