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

The Study Group on VMS data, its storage, access and tools for analysis (SGVMS) took place in Aberdeen, UK, 5–7 September 2012. Heino Fock chaired the meeting with 10 participants from six countries and from ICES. SGVMS was initiated by WGDIM in 2010 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 consider implications for ICES VMS data management, further progress in quality assurance measures, evaluation of e-logbooks and had to review further progress since its last meeting concerning data availability, data access and storage, data formats and data products, and tools for analysis.