Report of the Workshop on Cataloguing Data Requirements from Surveys for the EAFM (WKCATDAT)

The  Workshop  on  Cataloguing  Data  Requirements  from  Surveys  for  the  EAFM  (WKCATDAT)  chaired  by  Dave  Reid,  Ireland,  met  in  Dublin,  Ireland  from  26  –  28 January 2011. This meeting was delayed from the original timing of April 2010.
The main aim of the workshop was to provide a comprehensive catalogue of the data required from surveys to support all aspects of the EAFM. This catalogue was pro‐duced and is included in the report (Chapter 3). The aim was then to provide guid‐ance on priorities for data collection on improved and enhanced EAFM surveys. This was not carried out. The membership of the workshop was largely drawn from high level  fishery  survey  leaders  and  operatives.  While  this  group  included  significant  expertise  in  the  EAFM, it  was  agreed  that  priorities  were  better  set  by  the  users  of such data, rather than those whose principle task was to collect it. To complete this step  in  the  process  it  was  agreed  that  the  catalogue  from  this  meeting  should  be  passed  to  appropriate  ecosystem  groups  (e.g.  WGECO,  WGINOSE,  WGEAWESS, WGIAB  and  WGOOFE).  The  catalogue  has  already  been  passed  to  WGINOSE  and  WGOOFE. The final aim was to report on any implications of the exercise on plan‐ning for future surveys, and this is reported in detail in Chapter 4. Finally, a report on three EAFM style surveys already in operation was included as Chapter 5.