Report of the Blue Whiting Otolith Ageing Workshop

The objectives of the workshop were manifold; apart from the overall goal of securing consistency in age estimation of blue whiting; updating and assembling age readers from all national laboratories handling blue whiting from the North Atlantic to exchanged views on methods and experiences was among the objectives. This had not been done for more than a decade among the participating laboratories. The aim of these exchanges was to create the basis for a manual for age determination of blue whiting for future reference.
The workshop consisted of 3 calibration exercises:
• Two separate traditional age calibrations
• An Image analysis calibration
In the present report the three calibrations will be treated individually and conclusions will be assembled in the final discussion.