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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The data preparation meeting on Black Sea turbot was held at the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) technical unit (Burgas, Bulgaria) on 27–30 May 2019. The meeting was attended by 20 participants, including scientific experts and representatives from the administrations of the Black Sea riparian states (i.e. Bulgaria, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine) as well as a representative of the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission (DG MARE), an external expert from COISPA Tecnologia & Ricerca and the BlackSea4Fish project team of the GFCM. The main objectives of the meeting were: i) to further discuss the list of data gaps and requirements identified in the fifth session of Subregional Group on Stock Assessment in the Black Sea (SGSABS) held in 2017, Batumi, Georgia; ii) to improve the quality of the data set to be used in benchmark assessment; and iii) to standardize the survey data collected by the riparian countries. The experts reviewed the Black Sea turbot data used so far in the previous assessment. Particular attention was given to the assumption made to fill the data gaps. The participants presented the data collected by the monitoring programs carried out at the landing sites and at the sea. The survey data was re-analyzed under the supervision of the expert of COISPA applying the tools developed for the MEDITS program. The group also tried to access the historical data sources as far back as possible, and complied the data at hand to the format to be used for benchmark assessment