Mediterranean Elasmobranch Species Workshop

Workshop on Stock Assessment of Selected Species of
Elasmobranchs in the General Fisheries Commission for
the Mediterranean (GFCM) area

Date and Venue

• 12-16 December 2011
• EU Premises, Brussels, Belgium

Local contact
Antonio Cervantes
European Commission / DG MARE
1049-Brussels
Fax: + 322295.03.51
E-mail: Antonio.cervantes@ec.europa.eu

Contact for technical matters

• SCSA Coordinator – Fabio Fiorentino (Fabio.fiorentino@iamc.cnr.it)
• Workshop Moderator- Alvaro Abella (aa00477@arpat.toscana.it)
• GFCM Secretariat (GFCM-Secretariat@fao.org

Objectives
The main outcome of the meeting would be the Assessment of Stocks of selected species of
elasmobranchs in the GFCM area. The workshop will consist of practical sessions preceded
by introductory sessions of the suitability of the different available methods taking into
consideration the peculiarities of chondrichthyans.

The species selected by the SAC at his 13th meeting of 2011 were: Raja clavata, R. miraletus,
R. asterias, Scyliorhinus canicula, and R. melitensis for which a considerable time series of
data from direct surveys along with commercial catches is known to be available. The list is
not closed, and it can include other species when appropriate data be provided. The meeting
will aim to:

• Review available methods for stock assessment, including those for data limited situations;
• Review characteristics of Chondricthyans in terms of biological features (slow, growth, low fecundity rates, lack of hard structures for age reading) and in terms of data available (poor data record of catches and few individuals sampled for biological purposes);
• Discuss and chose among the methods previously selected by the Subcommittee on Stock Assessment in its 12th session of 2010:

– Yield and biomass per recruit model and composite surplus production models for singles species sets of data

– Productivity and Susceptibility analysis at community level

• Identify biological reference points (BRPs) and maximum sustainable yield (MSY) proxies;
• Analyze the data sets provided by the participants (Sampling frequency, time series, age structured, commercial vs surveys data);
• Run the stock assessment analysis; Output: Status of the stocks and suggestions for management advice
• Discuss on the lesson learned and suggest improvement for data collection and methods used;

Languages
English or French, may be used for preparation of workshop papers or for data submission.
However, no interpretation services will be available. It is expected that English will be the
main language for presentations and discussions.

Data provision
The experts planning to attend this workshop are required to previously submit to the GFCM
Secretariat any relevant information and/or the datasets to be processed during the practical
sessions. The data may concern, but not be limited to, the following topics:

• length frequency
•  time series of abundance
• structure by age
• commercial vs surveys data
• other biological and ecological data

The deadline for data submission is November 25th, 2011 in order to facilitate the preparatory
phase by the Moderator and the Secretariat. All the participants are also encouraged to bring
their own laptops to ease the practical sessions of the meeting.

Registration
The meeting is open to experts interested in the issues, however GFCM can cover only a
restricted number of experts.

Experts willing to apply for the funding coverage are kindly requested to provide together
with the enclosed Registration Form:
– A short version of Curriculum vitae
– A letter of interest specifying their field of expertise and a description of the
information they are going to provide.

Registration Form: Download (doc)

Visa
Excluding citizens from EU all other citizens need to obtain visas in the nearest Diplomatic
Consular Departments of Belgium. Participants are advised to contact their nearest Embassy
or Consulate of Belgium as soon as possible to ascertain whether they need to apply for a visa
as visas cannot be granted at the airport in Belgium. For further information go to
http://diplomatie.belgium.be/en/services/travel_to_belgium/visa_for_belgium.

SOURCE: FAO COPEMED II