The coordinator of the MERVEX group, Santiago Cerviño, will be one of the guest speakers at the SIMERPE2 congress. Alexandra Silva from the Portuguese IPMA, Andrés Uriarte from AZTI in the Basque Country and Marta Ballesteros from CETMAR in Vigo. ​​​​​​ Go to the SIMERPE2 web for more information.

We would like to announce that we are preparing a video about the MERVEX group in order to make its members and the work they carry out in the MERVEX framework better known. This week we started with the recordings at the Oceanographic Centre of Vigo: several members of the group were showing and explaining their lines of work to the documentary maker Rafael Méndez. They talked about fisheries biology, modelling and scientific advice. In the coming weeks there will be more recordings. We will keep you informed of further developments. ​​​​​​

Report on Radio Televisión Gallega about the oceanographic campaigns, in which some colleagues are taking part, to monitor the Norway lobster. Unfortunately, the bad trend of Norway lobster stocks in Galicia, shown in the last article published by our colleague Isabel Rodríguez, is confirmed. You can consult the article in the dissemination section of this page. ​​​​​​ Go to the RTVG website to see the video.

The congress has been held from 27 to 30 June in Vigo (Spain). Our colleagues Anxo Paz, Marta Cousido and Fran Izquierdo have participated with communications. ​​​​ You can consult the communications in the dissemination section of the website and the photographs of the congress on the MERVEX group's Twitter account. ​​​​​​ MERVEX Dissemination link.

Our colleagues Margarita Rincón and Santiago Cerviño are attending this WK. WGMIXFISH provides information for management advice and options which take into account the consequences of technical interactions in multistock, multigear fisheries. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ WGMIXFISH holds two meetings: WGMIXFISH-METHODS focuses on further methodological development and documentation​. WGMIXFISH-ADVICE aims to produce ​mixed fishery projections according to tested methodology and relating these to each stock’s single-species advice. ​​​​​​​​​​ Go to the ICES page, for more information.

The organising committee has good news for you: the deadline for abstract submission has been extended until 15 June. Go to the SIMERPE2 submission web.

New article led by our colleague Jaime Otero on the responses of small pelagic fish (SPFs) to fisheries and climate change impacts. The results of this study highlight the importance of recruitment for the population growth of SPFs and illustrate how the contribution of recruitment varies among and within populations as a function of environmental conditions and life-history traits defining an ordination of SPFs along a slow-fast continuum with implications for population dynamics and the responses to endogenous and exogenous factors. Go to the article page, for more information.

Our colleague Marta Cousido took part in a video produced as part of the Math4fish project for the International Women in Mathematics Day. Go to the Youtube page to watch the video.

Multiple members of the group will be in Copenhagen from 3-11 May for the WGBIE. At this meeting a total of 28 scientists from 5 countries: Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland and UK will discuss the assessment of 24 demersal fish and crustacean stocks. Go to the ICES page, for more information.

New article from the IMPRESS and Math4fish projects, fantastically led by our colleague Isabel Herraiz, on maximum sustainable yield for Norway lobster stocks on the northwest Iberian coast! This study, besides being relevant to the sustainable exploitation of Norway lobster stocks, also provides valuable insight into the adequacy and limitations of production models for the assessment of crustacean stocks in general. Go to the article page, for more information.

The congress will take place from 17-21 April in Bergen, Norway. Our colleague Anxo Paz participates with a panel communication, which deals with the R Knobi package, to implement known biomass production models considering environmental effects. You can check it out in the MERVEX group's github repository.

Yesterday, our colleague Anxo Paz, gave a talk at the Iberian Research in Statistical Ecology (IRSE), about a new library in R, the Knobi package implementing known biomass production models Go to the IRSE web for more information.

7 months Counting down for SIMERPE2 24OCT23 save the date! More information coming soon! Keep an eye! Go to the SIMERPE2 web for more information.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, the clock is ticking, but there's still time to submit your work for the special issue of ICES journal, come on in! Deadline: 31 March 2023. Keep spirits up! More information.

The e-learning course "Evaluation Methods with Limited Data", coordinated by "Centro de Formación en La Antigua de la Red de Centros de Formación de la Cooperación Española" and "nstituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero, asesor de SSPyA, CFP y la Cancillería Argentina" and taught by Marta Cousido and Santiago Cerviño from IEO Vigo The activity is part of the INVIPESCAFORT project. More information.

The MERVEX group would like to congratulate and support all our women scientists on this International Womens Day 8M2023!

We start the week with: 2nd meeting of the Scientific Committee of SIMERPEII with 12 international scientists from various fields contributing knowledge and experience. Go to the Math4Fish web for more information.

During these days our members Fran Izquierdo, Marta Cousido and Maria Grazia are presenting advances in spatial stock assessment models at the Workshop "Spatial Stock Assessment Simulation Experiment", organised by the NOAAFisheries. More information.

We set sail! Yesterday we met with the fishing sector for the anchovy stock and moved in terms of: Understanding Communication Empathy Proactivity This sector is key for Math4Fish and creating links with them is a priority. Go to the Math4Fish web for more information.

There's nothing left to send the abstracts! Several MERVEX group members are preparing ours to send them and be able to participate in this always interesting Annual Science Conference of the ICES (Bilbao, 11-14 September 2023). Go to the ICESASC2023 web for more information.

Check out the latest and freshly baked WKLIFE report on data limited methods in which our colleagues Marta Cousido, Maria Grazia and Santiago Cerviño were involved. Go to the ICES web to download the report.

Let's start counting down for SIMERPEII, today we bring out that it will take place in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz) from 24th to 27th of October. Reserve those dates , the members of the MERVEX have already done it! There is still time left, but we are already looking forward to it and we will be preparing our communications. Go to the Math4Fish web for more information.

Two of the members of MERVEX, Santiago Cerviño and Maria Grazia are organizers of this special issue of ICES journal and encourage you to send your work, you are still in time! More information.

Yesterday, part of the Math4Fish team held a meeting with the fishing sector for the southern hake stock in Vigo. For us, constructive dialogue is the basis for effective collaboration. Go to the Math4Fish web for more information.

Yesterday, our colleague Marta Cousido, gave a talk on surplus production models at the Iberian Research in Statistical Ecology (IRSE). Go to the IRSE web for more information.

Our colleague Marta Cousido led a study that reveals how COVID19 affected fishing activity in Andalusia. And she was in "enlamar" talking about this work. You can retrieve the interview here. Link to the interview.

Yesterday our colleagues Margarita Rincón and María de los Ángeles Gamaza travelled to Isla Cristina to meet with the purse seine fishing sector. The objective was to open a dialogue with a view to our next meeting in March for the anchovy fishery. Go to the Math4Fish web for more information.

DiaDeLaMujerYLaNinaEnLaCiencia A fact: in Math4Fish 4 of the 5 members are women. The key: that more and more women scientists are involved and that their voice is relevant for decision-making. A commitment: to promote science among girls. An image:

Yesterday our colleague Maria Grazia participated in the OpenScienceDay. She talked about how to combine at a practical level stock assessment models with the application of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. More information.

This week we are partecipating to the SS3 and GADGET course in Cadiz organized by Math4Fish. Go to the Math4Fish web for more information.

Today we are attending the workshop in “Advanced Species Distribution Modeling” in Guimaraes jointly with and many others colleagues.

This week we are attending the WKLIFE XI, improving the assessment of data-limited stocks. More information.

Remember that the deadline for submitting abstracts for the special issue of the journal is still open. ICES Journal of Marine Science . The theme is the same as for the SIMERPE symposium. Until 31 March 2023. More information.

A big welcome to David J. Nachón, hired by the Math4Fish project. David has extensive experience in the study of the biology, ecology and population dynamics of migratory species such as salmon, lamprey, European shads, etc. He is also a specialist in the study of the microchemistry of otoliths to analyse migration, dispersal, connectivity and return to the river of origin of migratory species, in particular European shads. More information.

Our colleague Maria Grazia co-authored this article. Using generalized linear models, we document, for the first time, the existence of a tradeoff between somatic condition and growth that shapes the survival of 2 high-value Mediterranean species More information.

Save the dates! From 24 to 27 October 2023 in Cadiz there will be the SIMERPEII Iberian Symposium on Modelling and Evaluation of Fishery Resources. Today we have met to start with the whole organisation. The countdown to SIMERPEII has officially begun Go to the Math4Fish web for more information.

The DIVERSIMAR project deals with the marine and fisheries biodiversity observation network of Galicia and the Cantabrian Sea. More information.

This week we participated to the Spatial Stock Assessment Simulation Experiment presenting progresses on our SS3 model towards a stock assessment spatial model. More information.

Remember to send your manuscript to our the special issue in ICES journal, deadline approaching. More information.

This Friday, 16/12/2022 (10:30h), take part in the DIVERSIMAR Project Results Dissemination Day. We will talk about the Species Catalogue, the Map Viewer and the importance of Citizen Science. In addition, we present a new App! To register.

This week we participated in the FLBEIA workshop in Cádiz to learn how to simulate management strategies! Let's get started! Today the whole math4fish team is attending the FLBEIA workshop with colleagues from IEO Vigo, IEO Cádiz, IEO Málaga, Azti and IPMA. Four intense days of learning in the simulation of management strategies await us. Go to the Math4Fish web for more details.

New paper out! We evaluated the effects of COVID-19 on fisheries in the Andalusia region! Check it out. More details.

Today, an interview with our colleague Eva Velasco Gil, in Revista Mar.

Today we are at the "Mesa de la Ciencia Pesquera" in Vigo with the participation of three of our colleagues: Santiago Cerviño, Paz Sampedro and Esther Abad.

We start today with the introductory online session of the workshop FLBEIA: Management Strategy Simulation Software given by Dorleta Garcia from AZTI and programmed as part of the Math4fish activities. Go to the Math4Fish web for more details.

This week we are super excited to participate in the first WGMPA meeting! We will focus on conservation measures for marine biodiversity (Marine Protected Areas, MPAs). More details.

The afternoon session of the XXVI Jornadas de Pesca de Celeiro begins. Daniel Rivera Martínez, editor-in-chief of IPesqueras, moderates the session and gives way to Santiago Cerviño López. More details.

New paper out co-authored by our colleague Rosario Domínguez Petit! We analysed the geographical variation of the biological parameters (age, length, weight and condition), as well as the length-weight relationship, maturity-at-length and spawning season onset and duration in five geographical areas (from south to north): the Canary Islands, Gulf of Cadiz, western Portuguese coast, northwestern Spanish coast and Cantabrian Sea. More details.

New IMPRESS project paper out! We analyze the temporal variability of size at maturity (L50) of European Hake by sex and the main factors influencing it in the Iberian Atlantic waters from 1982 to 2019. More details.

New paper out co-authored by Maria Grazia! In this paper we studied the genetic structure of #grayparrothfish and identified environmental variables associated with patterns of genetic divergence in most of its distribution in Brazil. Check it out. More details.

Check out the latest paper co-authored by Maria Grazia, fantastically led by Maria Soto, on testing the effects of misreporting of landings, discards and CPUE index in state-space production models. More details.

Remember to send your manuscript to our the special issue "Advances and challenges in the modelling and assessment of fishery resources" in ICES journal, deadline approaching. More details.

New paper out of our colleague Maria Grazia in Fish and Fisheries journal. Where are we in modelling marine fishery resources? Great review lead by Lucas dos Santos. More details.

Santiago Cerviño offers a post for the evaluation of strategies for sustainable fisheries management in uncertainty scenarios.

Our colleague Eva Velasco, from the DIVERSIMAR project, participates in the "Mesa Pesca Sostenible" of the "Maresdafindomundo" International Documentary Film Festival. Go to the promotional video.

Part of the team attended the "IX Xornada de Usuarios de R en Galicia". Anxo Paz presented "knobi: an R package implementing Known-Biomass Production Models". More details.

We are very proud and happy that the MERVEX group revalidates its recognition as a competitive reference group by the GAIN agency. This will allow us to continue for 4 more years to continue our research in the evaluation of exploited resources. More details.

Yesterday, the PI of Math4FishProjet Margarita Rincón, was talking about ways to expand models used for stock assessment to include environmental drivers at the European Marine Research Workshop about ecosystem-based fisheries management. Thanks to the host AZTI and our colleague Maria Grazia. More details.

Impress members have published an article with a very useful and complete review on modern Surplus Production Models. More details.

The Agrosfera programme on Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) is 25 years old and has celebrated it with a special programme in which it deals with the evolution over this time of, among other things, fishing. Our colleague Santiago Cerviño took part in the programme. Intervention by Santiago Cerviño after 16 minutes.

Two of our members, Margarita Rincón and Santiago Cerviño, were participating in WGMIXFISH to provide advice for Iberian Waters taking into account technical interactions in multistock, multigear fisheries. Go to the ICES Working Group on Mixed Fisheries Methodology link.

Two of our members, Margarita Rincón and Santiago Cerviño, were participating in WGMIXFISH to provide advice for Iberian Waters taking into account technical interactions in multistock, multigear fisheries Go to the ICES Working Group on Mixed Fisheries Methodology link.

The special issue "Advances and challenges in the modelling and assessment of fishery resources" of the Journal of Marine Science with the same theme as the SIMERPE symposium extends the deadline for abstract submission. Submission of abstracts until 16 January 2023. More details.

This week we are attending virtually the #ICESASC22, learning about the new advances in fishery ecology. Go to the ICESASC22 link.

A big welcome to Julissa De la Rosa and Helena Nina del Río Ares who will start their Master's thesis with us. Julissa will work defining bootstrap confidence intervals for the estimates derived from Known Biomass Production models while Helena will study the performance of the LBI (length-based indicator”) and LBSPR (length-based spawning potential ratio) data poor assessment methods through simulations.

Mervex members have been participated in the The International Statistical Ecology Conference in Cape Town. Marta Cousido talked about new ideas to deal with bias sampling in ogive estimation. Francisco Izquierdo discussed about: Is it worth to increase the complexity of stock assessment models for species with sex dimorphism? Amina Tifoura explained the impact of natural mortality assumptions on the assessment model performance. Go to the video.

Go to Francisco's poster.

Go to Amina's poster.

Eva Velasco and Xulio Valeiras has been participated on the WGCEPH improving knowledge about and the assessment of cephalopods as an exploited resource. More details.

Alba Fuster has been presented her research "Assessment of uncertainty in biomass estimation using different statistical tools employed in fisheries management" winning the best poster award at the XVIII Edición de la Conferencia Española de Biometría. More details.

Explaining advances of the aims proposed in the project and establishing future studies/activities to conclude the poject in the next months.

Impress members have published an article focus on the standardization of the data of sardine fishery-dependent catch-per-unit- effort (CPUE) from the west coast of Portugal using Bayesian hierarchical spatio-temporal models (BHSTM) with the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA). More details.

Impress members have participated on the WGBIE which carries out stock assessments and catch forecasts on Northeast Atlantic shelf fish stocks and provide a first draft of the ICES advice for all the stocks. More details.

Impress members have published an article analyzing the status of sole in ICES 8c9a areas using 3 size-based methods: length-based indicators, length-based spawning potential ratio and mean length-based mortality. More details.

Impress members have participated on the Benchmark workshop on anglerfish and hake (WKANGHAKE 2022) proposing a sex-separated Stock Synthesis (SS) model for the assessment of southern hake (ICES divisions 8.c and 9.a). More details.

Impress members have published an article studying the sensitivity of data-poor stock assessment methods to uncertainty about biological information. More details.

Common sole is a highly valued species in the market, in this new article, pusblished by Impress members, it's analized which are the areas where this species is most abundant and its temporal persistence. More details.

EuroMarine funded a workshop entitled "ADVANCES IN FISHERIES SCIENCE: USING ECOLOGICAL MODELS TO INFORM CURRENT FISHERIES ADVICE". The WORKSHOP will take place on March, 2022 on AZTI Tecnalia (Bizkaia, Spain). More details.

Mervex members has been participated on a day meeting for reviewing the aims reached as MERVEX Competitive Reference Group.

The Iberian Symposium on Modeling and Assessment of Fishery Resources organized by Mervex group has taken place this week. Details can be found on its website. Website.

Alba Fuster talked about R-INLA and regression models for standardizing spatio-temporal CPUE indices on the VIII Xornada de Usuarios de en Galicia.

Davinia Lojo presented her research on the life history of hake in Iberian Atlantic waters on the V Simposio Iberoamericano de Ecología Reproductiva, Reclutamiento y Pesquerías.

Rosario Domínguez participated in a panel discussion on Marine Research and Blue Growth at the Ibero-American Environmental Week.

Marta Cousido-Rocha presented "Assessing the sensitivity of data-limited methods for resources in the Atlantic waters"at the ICES Annual Science Conference 2021. You can watch the presentation in the following link. Link.

Mervex members study improvements in the selectivity of trawling during 12 days, aboard the vessel Miguel Oliver. They test different innovations to allow the escape of juveniles or avoid the capture of dolphins.

Mohamed Yosri presents his master's thesis "Application of known biomass production models for the assesment of resources of interest to Spain in Atlantic waters". In this work we use known biomass production models to assess the state of different stocks exploited in the Ecoregion of the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast, the work includes multispecies fits and analysis of the impact of environmental effects on their productivity.

Maria Grazia Pennino explains applications of Bayesian and spatial statistics in fisheries science on Cousteau Consultant Group.

Francisco Izquierdo presented at the ASLO 2021 AQUATIC SCIENCES MEETING the first results of this interesting work: Estimating life history parameters of European hake using Bayesian models. Marta Cousido Rocha presented our recent work "Applying length-based assessment methods to fisheries resources". Check the following link for details.

Link.

Alba Fuster presents her master's thesis "Protocol to evaluate the modeling of relative biomass indices". The objective of this work is to evaluate the accuracy and uncertainty associated with CPUE indices derived from data sources with different spatial information. For this, a standardization of the CPUE indices is carried out using geostatistical models in different spatial scenarios, comparing them with GLMs and GAMs models.

Marta Cousido-Rocha participated on the Workshop Biostatnet Software presenting new R-packages: Rfishpop and connectASPIC.

Our colleagues Margarita Rincon Hidalgo and Dorleta García participated on the Working Group on Mixed Fisheries Advice.

Link.

Xulio Valerias and Esther Abad are participating in the Working Group on Cephalopod Fisheries and Life History (WGCEPH) which is working to improve the knowledge and assessment of cephalopods as an exploited resource.

Link.

Xulio Valerias and Eva Velasco has been talking about biodiversity, climate change, fisheries and Citizen Collaboration on Burela Radio 107.7 FM.

Listen to it!

Mervex members participated on the XVII International Symposium on Oceanography of the Bay of Biscay.

Link.

Mervex members are participated on the Working Group on Southern Horse Mackerel, Anchovy, and Sardine evaluating southern horse mackerel (from Fisterra to the south), Iberian sardine and anchovy division 9a.

Link.

Mervex members have been participated on the Working Group for the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Waters Ecoregion evaluating 23 stocks in the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Waters Ecoregion. Anglerfishes, megrims, hake, nephrops, pollack and sole stocks have been assessed.

Link.

Mervex members participated on the Workshop for the evaluation of the Iberian sardine HCR re-examining the Iberian sardine Harvest Control Rule proposed by Portugal and Spain, MSY and PA reference points.

Our member Juan Gil Herrera participated on the Working Group on the Biology and Assessment of Deep-sea Fisheries Resources. Always trying to improve stock assessment results for the deep-sea fisheries resources.

Mervex members is organizing the Iberian Symposium on Modeling and Assessment of Fishery Resources (SIMERPE) to be held in Vigo on October 19-22! Go to the website.

Mervex members developed an R-package to facilitate the work with ASPIC, a software for fish stock assessment.

Our student (Francisco Izquierdo) explained his recent research entitled "Spatio-Temporal Assessment of the European Hake (Merluccius merluccius) Recruits in the Northern Iberian Peninsula" on the TV program "Vivir o mar". Go to the video.

Our students, D. Lojo Amoedo and A. Paz Cuña are participated in the V Scientific Conference of Students of the SEB. More details

Group members have been participated to the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity sharing different studies.

This week our PhD student Fran Izquierdo is attending the ICES training course on Bayesian Network (BN) analysis and the social-cultural dimension, learning how to apply BN to improve for stocks management.

Productive meeting of GRC-MERVEX planning exciting activities for 2021.

This has been an intense week for some members working on the Mixed Fisheries advice in the Iberian waters and attending several ICES WGs (WGMIXFISH and WKSPICT) trying to improve the scientific advice of the Iberian Atlantic resources.

This week we talk about two other essential parameters for the Stocks Assessment: the length and the weight. The L-W relationship has 2 fundamental objectives:

• 1. To predict the weight (unknown) from the length (known) of a fish. Very useful for calculating the biomass of a sample from the length frequency of that sample.
• 2. To identify the relative condition of the population by comparing the L-W parameters estimated for a population “x” with:
• (a) average parameters of the region
• (b) estimated parameters from previous years
• (c) other groups of fish.

The b value (in W=aL^b) indicates how the growth of a species is:

• b = 3 isometric (W and L increase proportionally)
• b < 3 allometric negative (larger fish are larger than small ones)
• b > 3 positive allometric (greater proportional gain in W than in L)

In addition, to obtain the mean length and the number of individuals captured by age class, the so-called ALK (Age Length Key) are constructed. These keys transform the distribution of the catch by length class into an age distribution or ALD (Age Length Distribution). Or what is the same, by obtaining the parameters that define the growth of the species, we can describe the growth curve of each species and estimate the age that a fish of any length would have. The ALD allows knowing what fraction of the population has been exploited, which improves the evaluation of the species that seeks to achieve a sustainable exploitation of the resource.

Marta Cousido-Rocha presents the conference "A new R-package for the analysis of the fisheries population under uncertainty" in the VII Conference of Users of R in Galicia. Watch the conference in her youtube channel. Go to the video.

Until recently, fisheries science was unable to inform decision-makers on the status and potential of data-limited fish stocks because we lacked suitable assessment methods. Since 2010, ICES WKLIFE has turned this picture around. Website.

Santiago Cerviño and M. Grazia Pennino have been participated in ICES WKLIFE.

Some of our members presented the scientific advices of the Iberian Atlantic resources to the Spanish General Secretariat for Fisheries!Keep working to improving Stocks Assessment and Communication between managers and stakeholders.

Our colleague Maria Soto is presenting during the ICES WKLIFE X the preliminary results of a work that assess the effects of under-estimating discards in Production Models using as case study the assessment of the hake in NW Africa.

We are very glad to announce that 2 PhD students join us! Amina Tifoura and Fran Izquierdo are going to develop their PhD exploring difference aspects of the Stock Assessment process.

Great meeting showing advances in SPiCT model applications for Iberian resources in Atlantic waters. Many thanks to advisors Tobias Mildenberger and Alexandros Kokkalis to join us and for all comments and suggestions.

Some of our members are reviewing advances on SPICT applications on different stocks in the Atlantic waters.

Some of our members are participating in the Workshop on Data-limited Stocks of Short Lived Species to further develop methods for Stock Assessment and catch advice for short-lived stocks, focusing on the provision of advice rules.

A fundamental concept for Fisheries Assessment and Management is the existence of Stock Units. We are working in a new study ....stay tuned!

Some members of the group are preparing during these days the Workshop on Tools and Development of Stock Assessment Models. Using a4a and stock synthesis (WKTADSA)! Always trying to improving stock Assessment Models.

A big welcome to Davinia Loja Amoedo and Anxo Paz who will start their Master's thesis with us. Anxo will work with different Production Models while Davinia will study the relationship of some life-traits with the environment.

One of the main source of data used in stock Assessment Models is derived from oceanographic surveys! Members of our group are participating in DESCARSEL survey which studies selectivity in the Northwest Cantabrian fresh fishery.

Some members of our group are attending to the the IMBeR Interdisciplinary Marine Early Career Network that aim on balancing the social, cultural, economic and ecological objectives!Learning on spatial measures to improve the assessment of marine resources.

Julio Valeiras and Eva Velasco present the importance of collaboration between fishermen and researchers.

Maria Grazia Pennino and Marta Cousido Rocha have contributed to ISEC 2020. Please check the details of the contributions in this link.

Explaining advances of the aims proposed in the first meeting and establishing future studies/activities.

The RDBES will be extensively used by ICES member states, the EU Regional Coordination Groups, and ICES expert groups to store detailed commercial fisheries sample data and use it for estimation - therefore it is essential that national data submitters are familiar with the RDBES format and confident in correctly converting their national data to this format.The activities of this workshop will promote the development of a Regional Database and Estimation System, RDBES at ICES. This workshop will help countries to correctly convert their national data formats to the RDBES format. The RDBES when it is implemented works as a commercial fisheries database for the Baltic Sea, North Sea & Eastern Arctic, North Atlantic and Long Distance Fisheries Regional Coordination Groups (RCGs). The RDBES will also function as a database and estimation system for ICES Fisheries Advice. The development will concentrate on harmonisation, quality assuring, documentation, approved estimation methods and transparency. Consequently, these activities are considered to have a high priority. ICES will issue a data call in 2020 for 2019 samples, landings and effort data in the new RDBES format from selected stocks. The ideal conclusion is that at the end of this workshop each person attending has developed working scripts to extract the data that will be requested by the RDBES data call.

We invite you to learn a little more about this project by visiting its website: Link. An interesting article related with the aims of the project can be found in the following page: Link.

We finished the WGBIE . Challenge and intense days with online meetings!

Closing WGDEEP after productive days working on Stock Assessment Models.

Many of the members of our group will attend the ICES WGBIE evaluating megrim, anglerfish, sole, nephrops and pollack stocks in the Atlantic waters.

Lockdown but still working on Stock Assessment Models as usual!Our team member Juan Gil Herrera is attending the WGDEEP presenting the evaluation of the Spanish Blackspot seabream in the ICES area 27.9

We are learning how to use Galicia Supercomputing Center (CESGA) in order to explore some options of our R package Rfishpop. Rfishpop is a interest project whose details can be found in the Github repository of MERVEX.

The tutorials deal of basic aspect of developing R packages in R studio and basic ideas of using Github.

Eva Velasco explained selectivity and discards to the fishery sector. Stakeholder engagement is essential for sustainable fisheries.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 11 February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in order to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls, and further achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. To celebrate this day, Eva Velasco gave talks to secondary school students, about marine resources and innovative tools for sustainable fisheries, explaining Descarsel and Sicaptor projects.

We are attending to the course "Introduction to regression models with spatial correlation using R-INLA" given by Alain Zuur and Elena Ieno.

We are participating to the second day of dissemination of Fisheries Research in Arvi Innovapesca. The dialogue between stakeholders and researchers as a model of Sustainable Fisheries Management.

This week we are in Rome at Fisheries and Aquaculture participating to the benchmark session on the assessment of blackspot seabream in the Strait of Gilbratar!

Very hard work of Mervex members Members at the WGHANSA meeting.

We want to say goodbye to Oscar Zamora García that has been collaborating with us for the last two months and learning techniques of data-limited stock assessment and spatial models!It was a pleasure have you in the IEO Vigo!Have a save flight back to home.

We are involved in different aspects to improve species stock assessment. Our colleague Julio Valeiras participated in a meeting to explain the Landing Obligation and the importance to reduce discards.

Our member Carmen Fernandez at the Sustainable Fisheries Symposium Fisheries Aquaculture.

We are attending a CPUE standardisation in the IEO Málaga. Different methods to improve abundance indexes for Stock Assessment models.

Offer of Scholarship for Training of Doctors of Impress Project. "Application of spatial and ecological knowledge in the evaluation of fishing stocks" Link.

The aim of this workshop is to identify possible stock-assessment models for data-limited stocks. More precisily, we focus on length-based spawning potential ratio (LBSPR) method, length based indicators (LBI) and surplus production in continuous time model (SPiCT).

Come and join to Dra Grazia Pennino and Dr Santiago Cerviño ( IEO Vigo ) on this exciting PhD project ( Impress Project ) where you will examine new spatial stock Assessment models to improve scientific advice. For more information please contact me and see: Link.

Very productive meeting, reviewing Working Packages and tasks of the project!A lot of work to be done.