Report of the Study Group on VMS data, its storage, access and tools for analysis (SGVMS)

The meeting of the Study Group on VMS data, its storage, access and tools for analy-sis (SGVMS) took place in Hamburg, Germany, from 7–9 September 2011. Heino Fock chaired the meeting with eight participants from five countries and from ICES Secre-tariat. SGVMS was initiated by WGDIM in 2009 recognizing that in the context of rapidly evolving methodologies of VMS data analysis and emerging requirements with re-gard to advice for European policies and the ICES Science Plan, a structured ap-proach to holding and accessing VMS data are essential. SGVMS had to consider implications for an ICES strategic position on VMS data, and had to review further progress since its last meeting concerning data availability, data access and storage, data formats and data products, tools for analysis and quality assurance issues.