Age determination is essential in fish stock assessment where estimates of growth and mortality rates are utilised in the models. Reliable age estimates are thus required to support suitable management and advice procedures. Age data are provided by national laboratories using internationally agreed ageing criteria and it is necessary to ensure that guidelines and criteria are agreed upon and followed. Therefore, otolith exchanges should be carried out on a regular basis and if reoccurring problems exist then an age reading workshop should be organised to address and solve these issues.
The general aim of the workshop is to standardise the age determination criteria followed in national age reading laboratories and to identify and address existing and potential problems in the age determination of Pleuronectes platessa. Examination of levels of accuracy and precision across readers and laboratories is required to improve the quality of the age data as input into stock assessment models.
The report from the first WKARP can be found
here.