The CWP has developed a series of paper questionnaires (the STATLANT questionnaires) that result in the national authorities sending the same completed questionnaire to each of the concerned international agencies. While there is a separate questionnaire for most of the FAO major fishing areas, the questionnaires have a standard presentation and use the same concepts and definitions: the major differences are the species for which catches are recorded. The STATLANT questionnaires greatly reduce the workload on the national authorities and ensure that each organisation receives the same data.
The Scientific Council of the North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) has identified the elasmobranch fishes appearing in the catches in the North-West Atlantic and has requested the NAFO Contracting Parties to report these catches on the Statlant 21A and 21B questionnaires managed by the FAO.
