Smart4SAM: SmartDots for monitoring, accuracy and reliable training of essential biological data - quality assurance for stock assessment

The EU Data Collection Framework (DCF) ensures coordinated biological data collection to support scientific advice for fisheries management under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Reliable stock assessments are crucial for sustainable fisheries management and depend on accurate age and maturity data collected under the DCF. These biological data are essential for estimating key stock parameters like growth, mortality, and spawning stock size. Ignoring uncertainty in these data can compromise advice accuracy, leading to unsustainable management decisions.

To address this, a comprehensive, standardized framework is needed to provide: 1) Reference Collections for training, monitoring, and quality control of biological data, and 2) Tools to integrate uncertainty into stock assessment models, ensuring more reliable fisheries advice.

The aim of Smart4SAM project is to develop an end-to-end management framework for quality assurance of age and maturity data, as well as their integration into stock assessments. The project will achieve this by:

1. Expanding the ICES SmartDots platform with functionalities for creating REFERENCE COLLECTIONS, enabling self-training, quality control, and uncertainty quantification in standardized output data.

2. Adapting and testing STOCK ASSESSMENT MODELS with functionalities to integrate data uncertainty of biological data from standardized SmartDots data outputs.

3. Advancing ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE applications to support biological data interpretation and integration into SmartDots.

Smart4SAM will focus on vulnerable stocks and commercially and ecologically important species, while the tools, protocols and guidelines developed during the project are generic and will be readily transferable across species and regions. Given that SmartDots is an open access platform, this will enhance exchange of knowledge, methodologies, and data utilization, benefiting scientists and fisheries managers not only in EU member states, but also worldwide.

Funding
The project is co-funded by the European Union through the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Programme (EMFAF).

Research area: Marine Populations and Ecosystem Dynamics
Research area: Marine Living Resources