Chair's Summary of the Annual Meeting of Advisory Working Group Chairs (WGCHAIRS)

WGChairs met under the chairmanship of M. Sissenwine and considered the planning of the advisory work in 2010. The list of participants is given in An-nex 1. There were many discussions and decisions related to individual groups e.g. clarification of ToRs. These decisions are not summarized in this report but are documented as amendments to EG ToRs and Agendas. The Chair summa-rized the discussions at the end of the meeting and this summary is given as Section 2. A key message from the Chair was the need to enhance communica-tion within the Advisory Services – He assured the meeting that the Secretariat and ACOM Leadership want the WGChairs’ input, feedback, and guidance.

A key message concerns the need to use InterCatch the database holding fish stock assessment data. The implementation has been slow but the documenta-tion is essential. Progress probably requires active engagement with National database managers/submitters, stock coordinators.