Working Group on Biological Parameters (WGBIOP)

The main objective of the Working Group on Biological Parameters (WGBIOP) is to review the status, issues, developments, and quality assurance of biological parameters used in assessment and management.

WGBIOP plans workshops, exchanges, and validation studies on a range of biological variables to review the quality of information supplied for stock assessment and improve quality assurance and training. The group also investigates data availability and develops documentation and methods to improve communication between data collectors and endusers and continues to deliver new modules and improved functionality for the SmartDots platform.

In 2021–2022, twenty-three exchanges and three SmartDots workshops were completed. Proposed future exchanges and workshops were also reviewed and approved. The further development of the SmartDots platform includes the incorporation of the maturity, eggs, and larval identification modules into the software version. A live SmartDots demonstration of progress with the new modules was presented. Work to further develop quality assurance guidelines and review national applications of these continued. Age and maturity validation studies were reviewed and a new method for prioritizing future validation work was proposed. Progress with the Stock Identification Database (SID) was reviewed and the creation of a WGBIOP library collection continued to be pursued. The importance of identifying and documenting links between all relevant databases and document repositories was reasserted with some useful diagrams describing these relationships being produced. Work continued on improving the feedback loop between data collectors and stock assessors on the usage and quality of biological parameters in stock assessment.

Moving forward, WGBIOP aims to continue collaboration with WGALES and WGSMART on the development of the SmartDots platform, encouraging the cross-working group sharing of skills and experiences to optimize results. WGBIOP aims to improve the accessibility of its outputs through updates to SID and the creation of a library repository.