STRENGTHENING REGIONAL COOPERATION IN FISHERIES DATA COLLECTION

fishPi was a research project with the aim of “Strengthening regional cooperation in the area of fisheries data collection”. The project brought together over 40 experts from 13 scientific institutes in 12 countries (10 member states (MS)) and two internationally recognised survey design experts. It was funded by EU MARE grant MARE/2014/19, with a 14 month timeline commencing in April 2015. This project has trialled the way sampling designs would be developed in a regional setting and showed that collaboration and consultation is required at face to face meetings through regional groups that focus on a particular group of fisheries. The project was the first step in this process and one of the main outcomes is the framework to take the process forward; developing data formats, data sharing agreements and easily accessible software for data sharing, checking and analysis, and for the simulation testing of sampling designs.European Unio

Second Workshop on Estimation with the RDBES data model (WKRDB-EST2; outputs from 2020 meeting)

This report shows how the new RDBES that is currently in development will be better able to support the recast EU Data Collection Framework (Regulation (EU) 2017/1004) than the existing RDB. The RDBES is an essential platform for MS and RCGs to fulfil their obligations towards documenting and improving data quality and designing and implementing regional sampling designs. The evaluation of data precision was performed using two complementary techniques. For relatively simple sampling designs it is possible to use analytical functions to calculate the precision (or a related statistical measure such as variance) of a statistical estimate. These calculations and implementations of them in R code are presented in this report. For more complicated sampling designs, the use of analytical functions is usually not feasible. In these cases, it is necessary to evaluate precision using numerical techniques, the main one of which is bootstrapping. This report discussed when bootstrapping is appropriate and gives several worked examples describing how bootstrapping can be applied in different cases. The evaluation of bias is a difficult subject and is hard to quantify. The approach followed in this report was to build on the previous work available in the ICES literature and identify and enumerate the main common sources of bias in catch sampling programs they describe. The information was collated and an evaluation performed as to whether data stored using the RDBES data format and reports issues from them can inform about the potential for bias in catch estimates. A set of example reports was coded that demonstrates the utility of the RDBES in relation to bias issues and can already help member states to identify how deviations in their sampling programmes and sampling variability may potentially lead to bias in their catch estimates

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