By Atuna

At the joint meeting of the tuna RFMOs, held last year in San Sebastian, there was an agreement to hold four workshops on subjects of common interest for 2010.

Two of these meetings will be held at the Eurostars Grand Marina/ World Trade Center in Barcelona, Spain.

The “Meeting of Experts to Share Best Practices on the Provision of Scientific Advice” will take place from May 31 to June 2.

The program starts by highlighting the benefits of scientific cooperation between RFMOs, and then addresses routine collected data (effort, catch, size). Following, the workshop with make a review of all major biological data (such as growth and age) and of stock assessment methods.

Communication and cooperation between RFMOs will be addressed at the end of the workshop, with emphasis on data standardization.

The “Workshop on Improvement, Harmonization and Compatibility of Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Measures, Including Monitoring Catches from Catching Vessels to Markets”, will be held from June 3 to 5, 2010, in Barcelona as well.

These meeting are considered essential for a global management of tuna stocks worldwide.