Report on biological and ecological data in the FarFish DataBase

This is the third and final report on the FarFish data base (FFDB). Task 2.3 (Advancing biological and ecological knowledge) of WP2 in FarFish aims to compile and make available in the FFDB, developed in WP6, data for the relevant stocks in the different Case Studies (CS). The data feeds into models and management tools that provide better understanding of the biology and ecology of the respective species and ecosystems, and will be used by other WPs (1, 3, 4, 5 & 6) for stakeholder interaction, development of management recommendations (MRs), modelling, stock assessment and for visualisation tools.

The two previous reports (D2.3 and D2.6) provided an overview of the data that was obtained and used as example data sets for the implementation of the Data Limited Methods (DLM) package and as input to the other WPs. In this report we focus on other sources of data, especially data that we were not able to obtain, namely Nansen survey and national research surveys.

The report provides a comprehensive overview of Nansen surveys and national research survey for the CSs. It is clear that a plethora of data suitable for application of Data DLM exists, especially in the form of national pelagic and demersal research surveys that are more continuous than the Nansen surveys. Acquisition of Nansen data was hindered by bureaucratic procedures and we strongly recommend a revision of the Data Policy to facilitate access to data. We also recommend that Nansen surveys should take into consideration the requirements for assessment and management of CSs and regional fisheries; lack of continuous time series of sampling makes Nansen data of limited use for assessment and management purposes.

Reluctance on the part of CS national institutes to provide national survey data for the FFDB limited the implementation of DLM. However, some example data sets were used to illustrate the possibilities of DLM and it is hoped that CS participants will bring their own national research survey data to the FarFish DLM course organized by WP7 with the collaboration of WP6 (planned for October 2021). We strongly recommend that CS partners explore the use of national survey and fisheries biology data for assessment of data limited stocks.

The report also reviews data collected by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) observers and data collected by observers within the Data Collection Framework (DCF). It was concluded that the SFPA-observer data is of limited use for scientific advice purposes, while DCF data was much more complete and detailed, and could be useful for scientific advice. The final section provides an overview of the data available in Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) such as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic tunas (ICCAT) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).