(197words)This paper presents the results of a global review of organisations that provide sustainable fisheries information -including ecolabels, recommendation lists and supermarkets -to consumers and supply chain intermediaries. It examined 17 organisations and key supermarkets that communicate on the sustainability of world fisheries and aquaculture products. Certification schemes assess a relatively small number of specific fisheries and indicate sustainability through labels. Recommendation lists cover more species and areas but in less detail. FAO guidelines for fisheries ecolabelling and aquaculture certification constituted the benchmarks with which improving conformance was found. However, significant variation in fisheries' assessment exists, affecting the accuracy and precision of information and advice provided. Inconsistent approaches and contradictory advice among certification schemes and recommendation lists potentially increase consumer confusion and 2 reduce their credibility. The review identifies seven critical attributes schemes must address -scope, accuracy, independence, precision, transparency, standardisation and costeffectiveness -and recommends that certification schemes and recommendation lists enhance their consistency and credibility through compliance with these attributes and FAO guidelines. Fish sustainability information schemes play an important role in securing a sustainable future for the oceans. Uptake of this review's recommendations should reduce consumer confusion and increase confidence in the benefits of sustainable purchasing.

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. 2005. Age determination, growth and reproduction in the lesserspotted dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula (L.). J. Northw. Atl. Fish. Sci., 35: 89-106. doi: 10.2960/J.v35. m504 Abstract Successful fisheries management is based on the knowledge of species-specific life history data, comprising age and general morphometric information. This study presents such information for the lesser-spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula).Four samples of S. canicula, totalling 745 individuals (310 males and 435 females), were collected by fisheries scientists from research and commercial vessels in ICES areas VIIa and VIIg, over the period November 1999-November 2000. A further 10 hatchling specimens (5 males and 5 females), from a commercial aquarium, were also collected. The total body length range for males was from 10.4 cm to 71.0 cm and for females was 10.3 cm to 70.0 cm.A total of 706 specimens (301 male and 405 female) were aged using crystal violet stained sagittal sections of vertebral centra. Centrum length grew in proportion to total body length for males and females. Age estimates ranged from 0 years (hatchlings) to 11 years for males and 0 years to 12 years for females. Annual periodicity of growth increment deposition was suggested following analysis of the centrum edge characteristics of a subsample of specimens by all three readers. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters L ∞ , K and t 0 were estimated for males (L ∞ = 87.42 cm, K = 0.118, t 0 = -1.09) and females (L ∞ = 75.14 cm, K = 0.15, t 0 = -0.96) separately. The length at 50% maturity for males was 53.5 cm and for females was 57.0 cm. These findings increase the life history data available for S. canicula and form a valuable contribution to the implementation of basic management measures to ensure the sustainability of catches of this by-catch species.

The age, growth and maturity of 1 554 individuals (268 Raja brachyura, 258 R. clavata, 468 R. montagui and 560 Leucoraja naevus) of the main commercial ray species from the Irish Sea were determined from samples taken from commercial and research trawls between 1997 and 1998. Sagittal sections of vertebral centra stained using crystal violet enhanced the underlying band patterns of each species, allowing the derivation of age and von Bertalanffy growth parameters. Age estimates were relatively low for each species, with a maximum age of 7 yr recorded for R. montagui and 8 yr for each other species. Growth rate parameters ranged between K = 0.093 (L ∞ = 139.500 and t 0 = -1.841) for female R. clavata and K = 0.304 (L ∞ = 72.400 and t 0 = -0.924) for male R. montagui, and were notably higher for both the smaller growing R. montagui and R. naevus. Morphological assessment of maturity, revealed that; male R. montagui matured at the smallest size (53.651cm) and earliest age (3.410 yrs), male and female R. clavata matured at the greatest age (6.130 yrs) and female R. brachyura matured at the largest size (83.560 cm). In each species, an abrupt increase in clasper size in males and nidamental gland width in females was closely associated with the onset of maturity. Age, growth and maturity are discussed for each species with respect to previous studies and observed trends in the fishery.

Eleven rajid species are taken around the Falkland Islands, with four species, Bathyraja griseocauda, Bathyraja albomaculata, Bathyraja brachyurops, and Raja flavirostris dominating commercial catches and generally occurring together. Catch limits for individual species are not used in management because species are not separated in the catch or reported separately. The catch per unit effort for the mixed rajid assemblage was standardised using generalised linear modelling techniques, and two production models were used to estimate stock size and sustainable yield. Maximum likelihood methods were used to demonstrate that there are two distinct rajid communities, one to the north and one to the south of the Falkland Islands, which have different sustainable yields. Changes in species composition over the 10-year course of the fishery confirm theoretical expectations that the larger, later-maturing B. griseocauda is being replaced in catches by the smaller, earlier-maturing B. albomaculata and B. brachyurops. These changes in composition were evident after only 6 years of directed fishing. The current fishery to the north of the Falkland Islands appears to be stable at an annual catch of about 3000 t, which is between 6.5 and 7.6% of the estimated pre-exploitation biomass.