Workshop 2 on raising stock data with the RDBES data model (WKRDBES-RaiseStock2)
<p dir="ltr">The Regional Database and Estimation System (RDBES) will soon be used operationally by national institutes’ data providers, and stock coordinators - therefore it is essential that current estimation practices can be reproduced with the RDBES data. The work done in previous workshops demonstrated that some national estimations could be produced from RDBES data however it was necessary to prove that we can successfully reproduce current outputs for chosen stocks.</p><p dir="ltr">In 2024 the first workshop on Raising Stock Data with the RDBES data model (WKRDBES_RaiseStock) – focussed on reproducing national estimations for Northeast Atlantic mackerel data.</p><p dir="ltr">This work was expanded in 2025 with Workshop 2 on Raising Stock Data with the RDBES data model (WKRDBES_RaiseStock2), the second workshop to reproduce national estimations, but this time for nine stocks: ple.27.43a20, tur.27.4, bll.27.3a47de, whg.27.7b-k, sol.27.7fg, pil.27.8c9a, sol.27.8ab, mac.27.nea and her.27.25-2932.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">Participants made good progress in developing R scripts for national estimations of commercial catches using the RDBES data with any reported differences being minor.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">Although TAF work was not planned for this workshop, the challenges of implementing national estimations in TAF were discussed. Also, the R template for national estimation in TAF, presented in the 2024 workshop, as well as guidance on TAF initial steps was recalled. It was noted that the quality checking of national estimates should be included in the roadmap of the RDBES development.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">No new issues were identified that would prevent progress in reproducing national estimates using RDBES data. Most countries are aiming to be ready to submit national estimates produced from RDBES in 2027. However, participants find it difficult to declare readiness, due to uncertainty about the development of TAF for national estimations. It is crucial to know the precise timeline of the development of different elements of the system, to plan a smooth transition from InterCatch to RDBES.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">Regarding testing the Regional Catch Estimates Format (RCEF), a comprehensive hands-on guidance was given and some participants reported progress in converting the results into the RCEF format. However, most stated that more time was needed to complete this task.</p>
