Report of the Workshop on Sardine Otolith Age Reading

At the ICES Annual Science Conference in Reykjavik (Iceland) from October 26 to November 4, 1996 it was decided (C. Res. 1996/2:39) that a Workshop on Sardine Otolith Age Reading (Chairman: E.Soares) will be held at the Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia (lEO) in Vigo, Spain from 4-8 March 1997 to:
a) analyse the otolith structure and define the yearly growth pattern of otolith from different areas;
b) report on the main problems resulting from the applied ageing criteria, and on agreement between readers;
c) establish a protocol for age determination using diagrams and photographs to illustrate age reading criteria.
This Workshop was sponsored by the European Commission (DG-XIV) within the framework of programme FAIR.