Worshop on Fisheries Overviews (WKFO)

Fisheries overviews summarize fishing activities in ICES ecoregions, including describing which countries are catching what species, the various fishing methods being used, the distribution and intensity of fishing, the status of fished stocks, how stocks are managed, and what are the impacts of fisheries on the ecosystem. Fisheries overviews are now published for most ICES ecoregions. The Workshop on Fisheries Overviews (WKFO) met to i) propose a long-term strategy for fisheries overviews, ii) suggest revisions in the content/arrangement of those, based on the long-term strategy and feedback from advice requesters and stake-holders, and iii) discuss issues related to data used in fisheries overviews.

The workshop suggested some restructuring and rearrangements in the content of fisheries overviews, and removing the short term tactical mixed fisheries advice.

A quality/consistency check was considered essential to ensure the quality of the fisheries overviews. The diversity of data used in a single fisheries overview or between fisheries overviews might create inconsistencies and it was considered essential to harmonise the datasets used in the different figures of a fisheries overview as much as possible.

During the workshop, participants went through each fisheries overview and identified data sources used to produce the figures, possible problems or inconsistencies (linked with the data themselves or in term of data availability and data flow to reach the FAIR data principle in a near future). Inclusion of other data sources or other action to take to improve the quality of the fisheries overviews was also considered.

Mechanisms for better linking/integrating and communicating fisheries status and impact infor-mation within the enhanced/interactive web interface envisaged for fisheries overviews (integra-tion and communication mechanisms) should be established.

In order to secure long-term viability in the development and production of fisheries overviews, establishing a small coordination group (7-10 people) consisting of representatives from the ICES Secretariat (Science Support, Advice Support, and Data and Information) was recommended. The purpose of this group will be to ensure operational information flow between all key play-ers in the ICES system and strategic planning of fisheries overviews. Further, technical guidelines for fisheries overviews should be established. WKFO recommends that the coordination group continues working on the draft guidelines for submission to ACOM for approval.