Meeting report
Medits Steering Committee
Elba, 19th May 1996

The Medits Steering Committee met in Elba Island on the 19th May 1996. The participants were welcomed by Pr. Relini who reminded that this meeting was scheduled at this moment to allow the participants to take part in the annual SIBM conference beginning the next day. The general co-ordinator opened the meeting and thanked warmly the SIBM and particularly its President, Pr. Relini, for his kind invitation in the very nice place of Elba Island as well as for the technical organisation of the meeting and for the financial support given by the Society. He apologised for the absentees who intended to participate but were kept back by other commitments or illness.

CERVEK Stanko Slovenia

CORSI Fabio Italy

FIORENTINI Loris Italy

GIL DE SOLA Luis Spain

JUKIC-PELADIC Stjepan Croatia

KALLIANOTIS Argyris Greece

LEMBO Pino Italy

MARCETA Bojan Slovenia

MIRAICU Tom Albania

NORRITO Giacomo Italy

PAPACONSTANTINOU Costas Greece

POLITOU Chrissi-Yianna Greece

RELINI Giulio Italy

SELFO Mustafa Albania

SPEDICATO Maria-Teresa Italy

TURSI Angelo Italy

VRGOC Nedo Croatia

ARDIZONNE Gianni Italy

CAU Angelo Italy

LEVI Dino Italy

MARANO Giovani Italy

PICCINETTI Corrado Italy

SOUPLET Arnauld France

TSERPES Georges Greece

The co-ordinator reminded the necessity to update the ‘94 Medits files during this half-year after verification with the CHECKMED program which had been distributed during the last meeting in Athens (November 1995). He thanked the groups who have sent him their files. He asked to the others to do that as soon as possible.

The co-ordinator informed the group that he meet with Alain Laurec (EC DG XIV-C1) in April. From this discussion, he noted the confirmation of the interest of the Commission for the Medits programme. He also identified different points which have to be taken into consideration for the future.

It is important to carefully avoid spending time and money in duplicating same kind of basic works (like building basic tools or methodology) in different laboratories when this could be done only in one of them and distributed to the others. It is also important to valorise the means available as far as possible towards the elaboration of data. To progress on this way, each team is invited to inform the Steering Committee when he intends to work on a subject which should be of interest for all the partners of the programme.

The interest of the Commission for the programme is directly linked to its need for basic knowledge on resources which should be usable for the European fishery policy. So, it is very important for the group to turn the analysis of Medits data to this scope as a high priority.

The results of the Medits programme have to be made available to the Commission easily and quickly. The organisation of a data base which could offer the possibility to manage the data and produce validated standard estimates is necessary.

It has been reminded that the protocols for the ‘96 Medits survey will be the same as for the ‘95 survey. The only major changes will be the extension of the programme in two directions. One of them is in the Eastern part of Adriatic due to the participation of our colleagues from Slovenia, Croatia and Albania and the support of Italy. The other one is the increase of the number of stations in Aegean Sea to improve the sampling scheme which was too low in this area. This development will be obtained due to the participation of the Fisheries Research Institute of Kavala (Greece).

The provisional agenda of the survey presented by the participants is the following :

The new version of the DAME program (data capture software) will be sent by IFREMER-Sète to the main co-ordinators as soon as possible.

Few plans concerning exchange of scientists have been identified. But the Steering Committee recommended the participation of a technologist at the beginning of the survey on board the different vessels, particularly those where problems remain using of the gear (cf. paragraph on selectivity and efficiency of the gear).

As for the ‘95 survey, the partners were invited to prepare and send their data to the general co-ordinator for the end of September. It is reminded that all the files should be checked and corrected by each of the teams, at least at the level done by the CHECKMED program, before sending them to the co-ordinator.

Concerning the elaboration of the data, it is envisaged to present the same estimates as for the 1995 common analysis (using the INDMED program). If some partners have new suggestions for this common analysis, they are invited to make a proposal and send it to the co-ordinator for the 15th of September. The proposal would contain a presentation of objectives, the methodology used and the software to compute. This will be circulated inside the Steering Committee before the next meeting. It was also reminded that the INDMED program allows to produce further estimates than those done during previous years (for instance biomass and abundance indices by sex, length class, etc.).

The data management working group chaired by A. Souplet met for the first time in Athens on April 1996. The results of this meeting have been presented by C.Y. Politou. The group reviewed different topics concerning the management of the Medits data. All of them are presented in a report which will be circulated to the Steering Committee members as soon as it will be adopted by the participants.

It was reminded that the working group will have to present for the end of this year a proposal on specifications for a Medits data management system. The Steering Committee was invited to discuss the different questions identified by the working group.

It has been acknowledged that the mnemotechnic coding system used for the species (which is close to the RUBIN code) has to be considered as a " regional " code. The Steering Committee noted that the Medits group did not have access to an international coding system including all the Mediterranean species. He also considered that the introducing of a new species in an international coding system would take a delay not compatible with the needs of the Medits programme. He also considered that a mnemotechnic coding is easier to use for biologists than a numeric coding. Finally, the Steering Committee considered that the present FM list has to be maintained as the reference list inside the Medits group. But the Data management working group is invited to search the best international list covering the Mediterranean species and to work on the organisation of an interface between the FM list and that international list.

The outputs should be devoted to the production of basic standard results but also informations on data present in the data base. The Steering Committee agreed with the working group to strongly consider that it is very important to separate data management system and softwares to elaborate the data. It was explained that the data management system should cover the validation of data including goegraphical informations. But this should be studied considering that the data management system would only comprise an interface with softwares dedicated to geographical analysis.

The Steering Committee agreed to the option of using hardwares on PC Computers with Pentium under Window (probably Windows nt) for the data management system. He also agreed that the system will have to be safe in the Network environment. But the Committee considered that the data management system should be firstly defined as interactive between participants. Then the implementation of the system would be adjusted referring to security and deontology considerations.

The software would be based on available market product. To prepare the choice of this software, it will be very important to clearly present the different kinds of requests and analysis that we intend to obtain and to evaluate in detail the different softwares available with reference to these specifications.

It was recognised that a certain level of centralisation will be necessary for the management of the system. The Steering Committee considered that two levels will have to be complementary estimated : the national and the general level.

A methodological working group chaired by E. Ferrandis met in Alicante on January 1996. The provisional report of this meeting has been circulated to the Steering Committee members before the present meeting. The discussion on the work done by this meeting was introduced by L. Gil de Sola.

This meeting was mainly devoted to involve investigations on the Medits sampling design by geostatistical methods. It allowed to introduce an interesting way of analysis for the Medits programme. But it has to be considered as a preliminary task.

It was noted that geostatistical methods could by used in different ways. These methods can be applied to improve the sampling design as to study the possibility to calibrate data obtained by different vessels. It was also underlined that geostatistical methods could allow the production of abundance indices by spatial and temporal analysis using krigging techniques. For instance, it could allow to estimate variances between two kinds of parameters (as depth and yield).

It was indicated that some reflections have been made in Italy about the calibration of the different vessels used in the national trawl survey programme. It has been considered that the Medits programme would mainly gain from the results of this reflection.

A discussion has also been started about the strategy by which the Medits group could progress on these important questions of data analysis. It has been stressed that the objectives of works have to be identified in the scope of sustaining fishery management.

It has been underlined that it should be relevant to maintain in parallel different approaches like geostatistic, usual statistic, cartography, etc., considering that each of these ways could produce complementary results. But the Steering Committee will finally have to identify priorities referring to the main objectives of the programme, the type of results done by each approach and the accessible means.

To advance on this very important question, the different teams were invited to progress as far possible with the resources available from the main Medits funding on proposing approaches for analysis. They were incited to prepare working papers for discussion during the next Medits meeting (November 1996). In each country, these tasks would be managed together with the concerned co-ordinators. Then the Steering Committee will weigh up the opportunity of presenting proposals for a next EC call of proposal.

The co-ordinator was also invited to manage a review of the different approaches done by ICES using trawl surveys results.

L. Fiorentini had presented the advance of the project on selectivity and efficiency of the Medits gear. This two years project (1996-97) is conducted by IRPEM with the collaboration of IFREMER. It comprises campaigns to compare the selectivity and efficiency of Medits gear with professional gears. A video system will be also used to study the behaviour of fish in reaction to the gear.

For this approach, it is considered that the Medits gear is globally stabilised. The objective is to know better its behaviour and to produce informations which could help to discuss results of biological data analysis. It will be important also to develop links between this project and calibration studies.

That being, it appears that people having a local experience on board different vessels yet wonder about the performances of the Medits trawl. This is mainly due to the fact that this gear is designed to be standardised for all the studied areas and depths ; consequently its design and catches are often different from those obtained with professional local gears. To favour the best use of the standardised trawl, particularly in connection with the skippers of the vessels, the participation of technologists at the beginning of annual surveys was strongly recommended, particularly to support teams without technological competency.

During the last Athens meeting (November 1995), it has been decided to organise a working group on selectivity and efficiency of the Medits trawl. Terms of reference presented to the Steering Committee for this group are produced in annex I. It was also explained that this group will have to be the link between the research project presented above and the main Medits programme. This group would be constituted as soon as possible under the L. Fiorentini’s chairmanship. The interested scientists will introduce them to the chairman through their concerned co-ordinators.

The co-ordinator informed the Committee that for the moment about 35 scientists had sent him back the form to present their themes of interest inside the Medits programme. The compilation of this survey will be done in a short time and distributed to the members of the Steering Committee for evaluation.

The Steering Committee was invited to study the access of Medits data for the scientific community as respecting the priority of use by the teams involved in their production. It has been suggested to publish jointly the communications laid by the scientists as well as a general presentation of the programme and data available to the scientific community in the acts of the Medits symposium.

The place and date of the symposium should be decided during the next general Medits meeting. The Co-ordination Committee has been invited to present for this meeting a global proposal concerning the organisation of the symposium. It was reminded that this symposium should take place during the second half of 1997. It was suggested to have it in Split to show the importance attached to the opening of the programme outside the European countries. The feasibility of this idea will have to be confirmed for the next general meeting.

It has been decided to have the next general Medits meeting in France between the 28th and 30th of November 1996. It was suggested to locate it in Sète, but following the request of the Committee members, the feasibility to organise it in Paris will be studied. Terms of reference of this meeting will be circulated to the Steering Committee in autumn 1996. They will include the topics discussed above.

The recapitulative timetable for the next half-year is presented below.

• Transmission of validated ‘94 Medits data as soon as possible
• Proposal on data management end of May 1996
• ‘96 Medits survey
• Spain 2/05 - 29/05
• France 27/05 - 26/06
• Italy and Balkanise countries end of May - end of July
• Greece 29/05 - > July
• Transmission of ‘96 Medits data (after
  validation) before the end of September
• Proposal to develop first common analysis
  on ‘96 Medits data before 15/09
• Selectivity working group before the next general Medits meeting
• General Medits meeting (in France) 28-30/11
• Annual interim report 31/12

The co-ordinator thanked all the participants for their active contribution. He also thanked Italian colleagues, particularly the SIBM, for their warmly and very efficient welcome.

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Improvement of the quality of the data collection process

Engas, A., and Godo, O.R., 1986. Influence of trawl geometry and vertical distribution of fish on sampling with bottom trawl. - J.Northw.Atl. Fish. Sci, Vol. 7,: 35-42.