Report of the Planning Group on Commercial Catch, Discards and Biological Sampling (PGCCDBS)

PGCCDBS met in Rostock (Germany) with the aim of discussing several issues related with coordination of biological sampling in Europe, in particular within the scope of the EU Data Collection Regulation (DCR) (see ToR in Section 2). It was recognized that the ToRs were very extensive to be addressed during the 4 days of the meeting and the PG decided to focus on: clarifying the way PGCCDBS can be operationalized within the ICES system; develop on tasks that were clearly identified as problematic and for which the PG had the expertise to provide useful advice and actions; answering requests addressed by other groups. In general there was a strong attempt to provide full developed proposals on the tasks addressed, avoiding recommendations when it was felt the PG could develop further on the specific problem. There was also an effort on using web tools for cooperative work by implementing an unofficial website for the PG (http://pnab.ipimar.pt/pgccdbs) using a wiki system, and scheduling work online whenever it looked like it was the best way to proceed.