Report of the Workshop on Sampling and Calculation Methodology for Fisheries Data (WKSCMFD)

The quality of scientific advice on management of fish stocks and fisheries depends on the adequacy and costeffectiveness of the basic data collected. Regulation (EC) N° 1543/2000 establishes a Community framework for the collection and management of data needed to evaluate the situation of the fishery resources and the fisheries sector. A key issue in this Regulation is the balance between the precision acquired and the costs involved. Amongst others, this requires insight in the precision achieved by current programmes, as well as consideration of options for improvement.

In previous years, EC projects such as study contract 94/13, FIEFA, SAMFISH and EMAS have compiled information and worked on the subject of sampling precision. The WKSCMFD is the first workshop dealing with the problem of precision related to the numerous biological parameters collected within the Regulation (EC) N°1639/2001 at the scale of Europe and for any stocks where information is collected. In this context, and notwithstanding the terms of reference, a large number of issues were raised by the participants. We then have focussed our attention on the description of the methods usable to fulfil the Regulation and explained their domain of application. Besides this important chapter, summary information on the national programmes has been compiled with regards to stratification and statistical methods used. Important subjects have not been completely addressed such as sampling design and full description of what an exploratory analysis should be. The group advises the reader to look at the working documents in annex where some examples of studies are given.Description not yet available