Working Group on Governance of the Regional Database & Estimation System (WGRDBES-GOV; Outputs from 2020 meeting)

The Working Group on Governance of the Regional Database & Estimation System (WGRDBESGOV) provides the governance function for both the existing Regional Database (RDB) and the new Regional Database & Estimation System (RDBES) that is currently in development. It is composed of representatives from ICES member countries and EU Regional Coordination Groups (RCGs). In this report, the WGRDBESGOV reviews the RDBES developments performed during 2020 and plans for the work required in 2021 and beyond. It also considers how RDB data has been used and proposes changes required to the current Data Policy. The RDBES is currently planned to replace both the existing ICES InterCatch and RDB database systems and has an important part to play in increasing transparency and improving the quality of stock assessment within ICES. To this end, two workshops have been planned for 2021 which will help data submitters with the transition to the new system. A new working group is also proposed to enable the ICES community to move forward with estimation using the RDBES data model. Following on from the data call issued in 2020, another test data call is also planned for 2021 which will give further motivation for people to become involved and provide a robust test of the process. The RDB and RDBES must ensure that data can be used by the RCGs and authorised groups in ICES whilst ensuring that only permitted users have access to the confidential data – the rules relating to this have previously been defined in the RDB Data Policy. In line with discussions at the ICES Data and Information Group (DIG), it is proposed to split the current Data Policy into two new documents: a Data License, and a Data Governance document. It is important to remember that the ultimate success of the RDBES will rely on the effort and contributions from a large number of people in the wider ICES/EU data collection community and not just the relatively small groups who attend the WGRDBESGOV or Core Group meetings. The WGRDBESGOV continues to encourage these contributions

The Third Workshop on Population of the RDBES Data Model (WKRDB-POP3)

The aims of this workshop were to explain the data model developed for the commercial fisheries Regional Database and Estimation System (RDBES), assist in populating it with real data for the second test data call for the RDBES, and encourage participants to take part in ongoing testing of the RDBES data submission system. This report documents the progress that participants have done to prepare their institutes for future use of the RDBES system. Some issues with data conversion have been identified and are documented in this report. None of the identified issues are thought to be serious impediments to moving forward with the RDBES development according to the roadmap decided by the Steering Committee of the Regional Fisheries Database in 2020. The RDBES Core Group (the group of people developing the RDBES data model) and ICES Data Centre will look at the results of this workshop and either respond to individual questions or adapt the data model and documentation as required. The workshop concluded and reported before the deadline of the test data call. For a complete test of the data model, all participants were encouraged to complete the data call. A report on the degree of completion of the data call may be expected from WGRDBESGOV which convenes after the data call deadline

Improved version of the Tropical Tuna Treatment process: new perspectives for catch estimates of tropical purse seine fishery. Catches in the Indian Ocean

The Tropical Tuna Treatment is a process created at the end of the 90s by EU scientists to estimate catch of the tropical tuna purse seine fishery, for which logbook declarations were known biased. His main purpose is to provide the best estimations for nominal catch and catch effort spatially represented, to the RFMOs. However, the evolution of fishing practices and the extension of the fishing grounds have challenged the T3 methodology in some parts of it processing. Thus, the used of too large spatio-temporal sampling strata was specifically pointed out as the major cause of biases in the catch estimated. This paper presents the new methodology developed to fix this issue and implications on the output estimations compared to the previous version and logbook declarations. Finally, future improvements were discussed

Macroalgae as a tool for assessing the ecological status of coral reefs under the Water Framework Directive : a case study on the reef flats of La Reunion (Indian Ocean)

The monitoring of macroalgae is required by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to achieve good ecological status for coastal waters and specific questions arise for tropical ecosystems belonging to the outermost European regions. To assess the suitability of macroalgae as a biological quality indicator for La Reunion reef flats (France), we performed multivariate analyses linking the abundance and composition of macroalgae to water physicochemistry. Three hydrological groups of stations were identified according to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations and DIN/PO4 ratios. Some indicator species were found at the N-enriched stations (Bryopsis pennata, Caulerpa lamourowcii, Chaetomoropha vieillardii, Derbesia sp1, Blennothrix lyngbyacea, Sphacelaria tribubides), and others at the non-impacted stations (Anabaena sp1, Blennothrix glutinosa, Codium arabicum, Neomeris vanbosseae). Another key result was the significant increase in red algal cover at the most N-enriched station. Our findings are discussed in the context of the application of the WFD in the outermost French regions

Development status of the new Tropical Tunas Treatment (T3) software

International audienceThis paper is an information note on the progress of the development of the new version of T3 following the development of a new statistical model

Statistics of the French Purse Seine Fishing Fleet Targeting Tropical Tunas in the Indian Ocean (1981-2018)

In 2018, a total of 14 French vessels operated in the eastern Indian Ocean including 12 purse seiners and 2 supplies. The total capacity weighted by the months of activity for each vessel is 11686t. The total nominal effort in 2018 was of 2885 fishing days and 2723 sets with 2463 sets on floating objects and 260 on free schools. In 2018, the percentage of sets on FOB was 90% and the catches reached 91%. The total catch of the French component of the EU purse seine fleet of the Indian Ocean was 84,729 t, being composed of 36%, 58%, and 6% of yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, and bigeye tuna respectively. Thus, the most noticeable change in 2018 is the shift of catches from the free school sets, dominated by yellowfin, to the associated school sets, dominated by skipjack. As a consequence, the increase in total catches mainly concerned the skipjack catches

Definition of a T-Cell Receptor beta Gene Core Enhancer of V(D)J Recombination by Transgenic Mapping

International audienceno abstrac

Tunabio: biological traits of tropical tuna and bycatch species caught by purse seine fisheries in the Western Indian and Eastern Central Atlantic Oceans

International audienceAlong with the development of the tropical tuna purse-seine fishery from the 1960s in the Atlantic Ocean and from the 1980s in the Indian Ocean, many projects and studies have been conducted to improve knowledge about the biology, migrations and dynamics of the stocks of target and non-target (i.e. bycatch) species taken in these fisheries. Since the 2000s, the European Union (EU) has been supporting Member States in the collection of biological data on species caught by their purse seine and pole and line fisheries, thus making it possible to have a long-term series of data. Biological data have never been saved by the different tuna commissions, unlike the catches by species and sizes by areas and periods. However, these data are essential to monitor the status of the fisheries and fuel the assessment models used by the tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (tRFMOs) for the sustainable management and conservation of the fish stocks under their mandate. We combined historical (1974-1999) and current (2003-2020) datasets on the biology of tropical tunas and bycatch fish caught by large-scale purse seiners in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean (EAO) and Western Indian Ocean (WIO). The resulting Tunabio database is presented in the present data paper and contains all available morphometric and biological data collected on more than 80,000 fish individuals