Report of the 2nd Workshop on Age Reading of Flounder (WKARFLO)

Descriptions of national sampling and age determination protocols were updated.
The results of the otolith exchange from 2007‐8 were presented and discussed (ToR a). Some of the more troublesome otoliths were discussed and agreement made on the age.
An experiment to read the age of Baltic flounder using broken and burnt samples was conducted and the results discussed (ToR b). This experiment showed that this method had some problems with agreement.
A reading experiment to assess the influence of knowledge of fish length on age determination was carried out and the results discussed (ToR c). Results suggest that no readers relied on the length to infer the age of the fish.
Two presentations on the development of an otolith “calendar” were discussed and an agreed way forward was established.
A presentation of the freeware GIMP imaging software provided a new way forward for image analysis, which would replace the need to buy expensive software and overcomes the problem of which version of software to use.
An updated manual (ToR d) was discussed and amendments were agreed.
A presentation and discussion of the setting up of national reference collections and reading of historical data provided agreement on a way forward (ToR E and F). Further work is required to establish the amount of time this would take and if the necessary people were available to complete this work.
Conclusions and recommendations from the workshop experiences as a whole were discussed and agreements made.