Please contact Daniel Ricard (daniel.ricard@gmail.com) if you are interested in contributing to database development and/or would like to obtain access to the most up-to-date version.

The RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database is a database of marine fish assessments inspired by the original Myers Stock-Recruit database built by Ransom Myers, Nick Barrowman, and Jessica Bridson in the mid-1990s.

For each stock, the database contains data from a stock assessment (hopefully the most recent, please report otherwise). Assessments from NMFS, DFO, NAFO, ICES, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa, and RFMOs are currently available, and we welcome assessments from other regions. Most of the data from the original Myers Stock-Recruit Database are also part of the database, so that comparisons can be made between the two.

Fair Use Policy We welcome collaborators who are interested in using the database in their research, and request that you contact Daniel Ricard (daniel.ricard@gmail.com) and Julia Baum (juliakbaum@gmail.com) if you would like to do so. Use of the database is subject to a ‘Fair Use’ policy, which includes the following criteria:

– Please notify us is you are in the process of submitting a manuscript using information obtained from the RAM Legacy database.

– Researchers are working on a number of analyses of the database, and we request that you coordinate your efforts so that it can be ensured that your research is complementary to others, either by:

(i) joining others on existing papers when efforts overlap, or

(ii) offering the database developers and their colleagues the opportunity to become involved in your research as co-authors when your research is separate from ongoing efforts.

– We request that while we are still actively developing the database, if you would like to conduct analyses using the most up-to-date data, that you also make a tangible contribution to the database development. This includes entering new stock assessments, developing and sharing code to run analyses and operational realities such as running computer servers and paying salaries. We will work with you to help facilitate these contributions.

-Primary publications based on analyses of the database must cite the primary paper describing the database:

Ricard, D., Minto, C., Jensen, O.P. and Baum, J.K. (in press) Evaluating the knowledge base and status of commercially exploited marine species with the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database. Fish and Fisheries doi: 10.1111/j.1467-2979.2011.00435.x

Database Implementation Real-time, multi-user internet access to both the production and development versions of the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database is currently supported. Using appropriate login credentials, the database can be queried to extract the appropriate data subset required for analysis. A number of data products derived from the database contents, and analytical resources derived from previous papers, are also available . A static version of the database is also available in Microsoft Access format. A multi-worksheet Excel spreadsheet file is also available but will not contain the relations between the different data tables .

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the many stock assessment scientists whose work this database is based upon and to all the collaborators that have thus far contributed to its development. We are also grateful to the Census of Marine Life, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, NCEAS, NSERC, the Smith Conservation Research Fellowship and the Walton Family Foundation for funding development of the database to date.