Organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Mediterranean General Fisheries Commission (GFCM), a workshop titled "Methods for Reading Age in Sea Snails and Sharks" was held at İU Faculty of Aquatic Sciences.

The opening speeches were made by Prof. Dr. Melek İşinibilir Okyar, Dean of the Faculty of Aquatic Sciences, and Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Özbilgin, Turkey responsible for the Mediterranean General Fisheries Commission (GFCM). The event was moderated by Prof. Dr. Ali Cemal Gücü from METU Mersin Marine Sciences Institute and Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Özbilgin, responsible for (GFCM) Türkiye. The event was hosted by the BlackSea4Fish team of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and İstanbul University Faculty of Aquatic Sciences. In the event, where Prof. Dr. Saadet Karakulak and Dr. Lecturer Uğur Uzer contributed as project stakeholders, joint laboratory studies and practical sessions were organized for four days between 11-14 December 2023. In the workshop, the presentation of sea snail age reading methods was made by Assist Prof. Dr. Alexander Pavlov Atanasov from IFR Varna, Bulgaria, and the presentations of shark age reading methods and laboratory analyzes were made by Prof. Dr. Nuri Başusta from Fırat University, Türkiye. In these activities, the critical issue of age determination methods for Sea Snails and Sharks, two priority species of the Black Sea, was discussed. The primary aim was to examine in depth the basic methodologies for accurately determining the ages of these species and to demonstrate the importance of standardized age reading practices. During the sessions, active practical experiments and studies on examples were carried out with the participation of experts from Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Türkiye and Ukraine.

The workshop concluded with in-depth discussions and recommendations from the findings. This collaboration between experts from various Black Sea countries has contributed to the improvement and more harmonious evaluation of age reading applications in important marine creatures.