STANDING COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND STATISTICS (SCRS) (Hotel Velázquez, Madrid, 28 September to 2 October 2015) TENTATIVE AGENDA 1. Opening of the meeting 2. Adoption of Agenda and arrangements for the meeting 3. Introduction of Contracting Party delegations * 4. Introduction and admission of observers * 5. Admission of scientific documents 6. Report of Secretariat activities in research and statistics 7. Review of national fisheries and research programs ** 8. Executive Summaries on species: YFT-Yellowfin, BET-Bigeye, SKJ-Skipjack, ALB-Albacore, BFT-Bluefin, BUM-Blue marlin, WHM- White marlin, SAI-Sailfish, SWO-Atl. Swordfish, SWO-Med. Swordfish, SMT-Small Tunas, SHK-Sharks 9. Report of inter-sessional SCRS meetings 9.1 Meeting of the ICCAT Working Group on Stock Assessment Methods 9.2 Bluefin data preparatory and assessment meetings 9.3 Blue shark data preparatory meeting 9.4 Bigeye data preparatory and assessment meetings 9.5 Small tunas Species Group intersessional meeting 10. Report of Special Research Programs 10.1 Atlantic Wide Research Programme for Bluefin tuna (GBYP) 10.2 Enhanced Research Program for Billfish 10.3 Small Tunas Research Program 10.4 Shark Research and Data Collection Programme (SRDCP) 10.5 Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tunas Tagging Programme (AOTTP) 11. Report of the meeting of the Sub-Committee on Statistics 12. Report of the meeting of the Sub-Committee on Ecosystems 13. Report of the meeting of the Ad hoc Working Group on FADs 14. Report of the Working Group of Fisheries Managers and Scientists in support of the 3 rd W-BFT stock assessment 15. Report of the 2 nd Standing Working Group to Enhance Dialogue between Fisheries Scientists and Managers 16. Report on the implementation of the Science Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 in 2015 and work plan for 2016 which includes the definition of an ICCAT training plan as well as the update of the stock assessment software catalogue 17. Consideration of plans for future activities 17.1 Annual Work Plans 17.2 Inter-sessional meetings proposed for 2016 17.3 Date and place of the next meeting of the SCRS 18. General recommendations to the Commission 18.1 General recommendations to the Commission that have financial implications 1
18.2 Other recommendations 19. Responses to Commission's requests *** 19.1 Evaluate the efficacy of the area/time closure referred to in paragraph 24 for the reduction of catches of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin Rec. [14-01] paragraphs 26. 19.2 Evaluate the potential impact on the level of catches of the detailed capacity management plan submitted by Ghana. Rec. [14-10] paragraph 2. 19.3 The SCRS shall update the Commission annually and prior to the Commission meeting, on any changes of the estimated bluefin catch rates per vessel and gear. Rec. [14-04] paragraphs 43. 19.4 Continue to explore operationally viable technologies and methodologies for determining the size and biomass at the points of capture and caging and report to the Commission, Rec. [14-04] paragraph 82. 19.5 Evaluate the results of the 100% coverage programme using stereoscopical cameras systems or alternative techniques that provide the equivalent precision to refine the number and weight of the fish during all caging operations. Rec. [14-04] paragraph 83. 19.6 Evaluate the BFT national observer programmes conducted by CPCs to report the Commission and to provide advice on future improvements, Rec. [14-04] paragraph 88. 19.7 Evaluation of data deficiencies pursuant to [Rec. 05-09]. 19.8 Continue assessing on the ecological importance of the Sargasso Sea to tuna and tuna-like species and ecologically associated species. Rec. [12-12] paragraph 1. 20. Other matters 20.1 Collaboration with other International Organizations (ICES, CITES, GEF, etc.) 20.2 Consideration of implications of the Third Meeting of the Working Group on Convention Amendment and on the virtual Working Group on ICCAT Performance Review. 21. Adoption of report and closure * The Executive Secretary will list the Contracting Parties and Observer Delegations present. Any statements should be presented in writing only. ** The text to be included in the SCRS report should be very short and presented in writing on or before 30 September. Oral presentations, if any, should be brief and focus on aspects that are not covered elsewhere by the individual species groups. *** Responses derived from the results of 2015 stock assessments for Atlantic bigeye and North and South Atlantic blue shark stocks are included in Agenda Item 8. 2
2015 TENTATIVE AGENDA OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS (ICCAT Secretariat, 21-22 September 2015) 1. Opening, adoption of Agenda and meeting arrangements 2. Review of fisheries and biological data (new and historical revisions) submitted during 2015 2.1 Task I (nominal catches and fleet characteristics) 2.2 Task II (catch & effort and size samples) 2.3 Tagging 2.4 GBYP related data 2.5 ICCAT biometric relationships and other conversion factors, revision and update workplan. 2.6 Other relevant statistics 3. Review of criteria applied to ICCAT statistics 3.1 Application of Filters 1 and 2 on data submission 3.2 Review of the effect in Task I and Task II data of applying the new length-weight relationship adopted by the Bluefin tuna species group. 4. Review of ICCAT-DB (ICCAT relational database system) 4.1 Progress made and future plans 4.2 Status of the code migration (VBA to JAVA) project 4.3 Advances on ICCAT-DB documentation (user guides & reference manuals) 4.4 Status of the ICCAT cloud infrastructure 4.5 Changes to the ICCAT coding system 5. National and international statistical activities 5.1 International and inter-agency coordination and planning (FAO, CLAV, CWP, FIRMS) 5.2 National data collection systems and improvements 6. Report on data improvement activities 6.1 ICCAT-Japan Data and Management Improvement Project 6.2 Data Funds from [Res. 03-21] 6.3 Data recovery activities 6.4 BFT-E VMS data 7. Review of Secretariat yearly based fishery datasets estimations and dissemination 7.1 CATDIS 7.2 CAS (catch-at-size) and CAA (catch-at-age) 7.3 Others 8. Review of the new EFFDIS estimate 9. Review of publications and data dissemination 9.1 Revise the new ICCAT-Aquatic Living Resources publication agreement and update the SCRS procedure for selection and monitoring the documents submitted to ALR. 9.2 ICCAT publications 9.3 Development of web based tutorial for ICCAT data submission 10. Future development plan for the ICCAT Manual 11. Consideration of recommendations from 2015 inter-sessional meetings 12. Evaluation of data deficiencies pursuant to [Rec. 05-09] 12.1 Current data catalogues of major species by stock 12.2 Implications of identified deficiencies in future stock assessments 12.3 Proposals for data recovery plans and improvements on data collections systems 13. Review of existing data submission policy 13.1 Statistics reporting formats (e-forms) and deadlines 13.2 Rules applied to historical data revisions 3
13.3 Review of new sampling areas proposed by the different species groups 13.4 Review of the e-forms for metadata/data quality information proposed by the BFT species group 13.5 Other related matters 14. Other matters 14.1 Review progress on prior year recommendations of the Sub-Committee on Statistics 15. Future plans and recommendations 16. Adoption of the report and closure. 2015 TENTATIVE AGENDA OF THE TROPICAL SPECIES GROUP (ICCAT Secretariat, 23-25 September 2015) 1. Review of new scientific documents for the species 2 Evaluate the efficacy of the area/time closure referred to in paragraph 24 for the reduction of catches of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin Rec. [14-01] paragraphs 26. 3. Evaluate the potential impact on the level of catches of the detailed capacity management plan submitted by Ghana 4. Review the development of the AOTTP 5. Review/simplify the current sampling areas for yellowfin and bigeye 6. Update of the SKJ and YFT Executive Summaries 2015 TENTATIVE AGENDA OF THE BLUEFIN SPECIES GROUP (ICCAT Secretariat, 23-25 September 2015) 1. Review of new scientific documents for the species 2. Review the progress made according with the work plan elaborated during the Bluefin data preparatory meeting (estimates of Task I, Task II and CAS data with the new L/W relationships, ALK, etc). 3. Responses to the Commission: 3.1 Review the estimated bluefin catch rates per vessel and gear to update the Commission on possible any changes. Rec. [14-04] paragraphs 43. 3.2 Continue to explore operationally viable technologies and methodologies for determining the size and biomass at the points of capture and caging and report to the Commission, Rec. [14-04] paragraph 82. 3.3 Evaluate the results of the 100% coverage programme using stereoscopical cameras systems or alternative techniques that provide the equivalent precision to refine the number and weight of the fish during all caging operations. Rec. [14-04] paragraph 83. 3.4 Evaluate the BFT national observer programmes conducted by CPCs to report the Commission and to provide advice on future improvements, Rec. [14-04] paragraph 88. 4 Update of the BFT Executive Summary 5. Workplan and recommendations for 2016 4
2015 TENTATIVE AGENDA OF THE BILLFISH SPECIES GROUP (ICCAT Secretariat, 22-25 September 2015) 1. Review of historical and new data on sailfish biology 2. Review of fishery statistics 2.1 Task I (catches) data 2.2 Task II (catch-effort and size samples) data 2.3 Other information (tagging) 3. Review of fishery indicators 4. Review of available indices of relative abundances by fleet and estimation of combined indices 5. Update of the Executive Summaries SAI, WHM and BUM 6. Plans for the Enhanced Research Program for Billfish 8. Adoption of the report 2015 TENTATIVE AGENDA OF THE SWORDFISH SPECIES GROUP (ICCAT Secretariat, 23-24 September 2015) 1. Review of new scientific documents for the Atlantic and Mediterranean swordfish 2. Review new information on the current boundary between North Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks 3. Revise and validate new weight-length relationship for the swordfish Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks 4. Review the progress made on the influence of environmental effects on the indices of abundance 5. Review/simplify the current sampling areas for swordfish 6. Update of the Executive Summaries for North and South Atlantic and Mediterranean swordfish 2015 TENTATIVE AGENDA OF THE ALBACORE SPECIES GROUP (ICCAT Secretariat, 23 September 2015) 1. Review of new scientific documents for the Atlantic and Mediterranean albacore 2. Review/simplify the current sampling areas for albacore 3. Update of the Executive Summaries for North and South Atlantic and Mediterranean albacore 4. Workplan and recommendations for 2016 2015 TENTATIVE AGENDA OF THE SHAKS SPECIES GROUP (ICCAT Secretariat, 24-25 September 2015) 1. Review of new scientific documents for sharks 2. Review of progress in the Shark Research and Data Collection Programme (SRDCP) 3. Update of the Executive Summaries for sharks 4. Workplan and recommendations for 2016 5