Report of the Workshop on Maturity Ogive Estimation for Stock Assessment (WKMOG)

The European Union requires member states to collect maturity data under the Data Collection Regulation (DCR) but there are no agreed guidelines for calculating and reporting maturity estimates from the data collected. Therefore this workshop was proposed by the Planning Group on Commercial Catches, Discards and Biological Sampling (PGCCDBS 2007) as part of ongoing ICES work to improve data collection, methodology and quality assurance. The objectives were to establish, if not a common method for raising, at least a set of best practices to be used when producing estimates from maturity data and to give participants the opportunity to address specific issues related to their maturity sampling and estimation approaches. The workshop met its Terms of Reference which, in brief, were: a) Review the data structures and agree on a format for analysis purposes; b) Investigate differences in raising procedures in use by different countries, compare results, identify advantages and limitations; c) Propose best practices for summarizing and reporting the results.