Regional Cordination Groups for Fisheries Data Collection

Who is involved?

• EU Member States are at the core of the RCGs, participating through appointed National Correspondents and experts.
• The European Commission, supporting coordination and ensuring the implementation of the DCF.
• End users of the DCF data, informing about their needs, offering feedback on submitted data and providing recommendations.
• Where relevant, third countries sharing waters in a certain region or interests in a common fisheries are invited as observers.

The overall framework is completed with the RCGs Secretariat, which facilitates communication and workflows throughout the network by providing support and shared working environments.

What do RCGs do?

RCGs provide a coordination framework for EU Member States on fisheries data collection by marine region or type of fisheries. This includes agreeing methodologies and approaches, cooperating on scientific surveys, coordinating sampling activities, addressing data issues, setting up and managing compatible datasets at regional level, developing Regional Work Plans and engaging with end users.

When issues affect more than one region, coordination takes place between RCGs and with the European Commission.

Why do RCGs matter?

Fisheries management relies on scientific advice to support decisions that affect ecosystems, fishing activities and the communities that depend on them. To be robust and usable, this advice requires data collected in a consistent and comparable way. When methods, coverage or timing differ, uncertainty increases and the quality of the evidence base is reduced.

RCGs support the delivery of reliable, comparable fisheries data for scientific advice. By coordinating data collection across countries and fisheries, RCGs help ensure that data meet the needs of end users and contribute effectively to fisheries management at regional and EU level.