The information prepared, processed and contributed to FIRMS are executive Summaries containing the latest SCRS advice to the ICCAT Commission, including information on the biology, description of fisheries (including catches), state of stocks, outlook and management advice of tuna and tuna-like stocks in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. The contributions from ICCAT to FIRMS do not include the basic datasets that are used for the analyses conducted by the ICCAT Secretariat, the SCRS or its subsidiary bodies.

The information is provided for those tuna and tuna-like stocks in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas, under ICCAT's mandate, for which the SCRS prepares Executive Summaries.

See the current collection coverage   

The main bibliographical source for the contributions to FIRMS is the annual ICCAT SCRS Report, published in the ICCAT Biennial Report Series and available on the ICCAT website and accessible from FIGIS-FIRMS fact sheets. The fact sheet links to this bibliographical reference for a given annual publication.

The information contributed by ICCAT conforms, whenever possible, to the Information Management Policy established by the FIRMS Steering Committee.

Sources and Traceability
The master ICCAT SCRS Report is published in hard copy in ICCAT's Biennial Report Series and also posted on ICCAT's web site. Links to relevant sections of these reports and relevant section of texts are added in various topics of the FIRMS fact sheets under ICCAT SCRS ownership. Currently, reports remain on the ICCAT website for one year before being removed from public access, but are available widely in libraries (including the FAO library) in hard copy. The ICCAT Secretariat plans to make all historical ICCAT reports available in electronic form before 2005.

Transparency and Peer-Review
Transparency of the processes is guaranteed by the ICCAT SCRS sequence of events. Details of ICCAT data collection and compilation are provided in its various reports. Further information and links to detailed information may be found at .

Collection Method: In partial summary, the sources of data used in assessments and research of ICCAT include:

• Task I statistics: Nominal annual catch by species, region, gear, flag, and where possible, separated between EEZ and High Seas. In general, responsibility for reporting catch and landings data rests on flag states.
• Task II statistics: Catch and fishing effort statistics for each species by small area (1x1 degree rectangles for most gears, 5x5 degree rectangles for longlines), gear, flag, and month. Task II data also include actual size frequencies of samples measured for each species by small area, gear, flag and month.
• Other Data. Other data, usually provided by scientists, are used for assessments. Examples include tag release-recapture data; life-history studies; and, relative indices of abundance over time.

Processing Method: Depending on the mandate of the Commission, Species Working Groups meet every 2-5 years to update a stock assessment using the most up-to-date information available. ICCAT's SCRS generally meets annually in October and prepares Executive Summaries for the major ICCAT stocks, and provides advice to the Commission in the form of the adopted SCRS Report. A species' Executive Summary may be subject to major revisions only when an updated assessment has been made for that species in that year; otherwise, the Executive Summaries change little from year to year, primarily to reflect recent fishing activities.

Validation Mechanism: The text of the ICCAT Executive Summaries is carefully drafted and agreed to by scientific representatives from ICCAT Contracting Parties.

Consistency and accuracy
The contributions from ICCAT to FIRMS are managed using standards that do not alter the integrity of the Executive Summaries.

Information Security
All contributions provided by ICCAT are on the public domain.
The information contributed to FIRMS resides under the full ownership (hence responsibility) of the ICCAT SCRS. Methods used in authentication and verification of this information lie on the FIRMS security mechanisms, including a role for an ICCAT editor and an ICCAT approver.

Timeliness
These actors are responsible for ensuring that the FIRMS fact sheets are reasonably up-to-date with respect to the ICCAT SCRS reports. Conditional on the availability of resources at the ICCAT Secretariat, transmission schedule is planned to be within 12 months following the formal adoption of the Executive Summaries by the SCRS.

Inquiries can be addressed to the Database Manager of the Secretariat to International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantics Tunas (ICCAT).

This is an extract of the ICCAT fisheries advice presenting the fish stock information. The full ICCAT advice is available on http://www.iccat.int and accounts for fisheries constraints in addition to the stock considerations.