Data mining and data recovery activities have been carried out in several countries, beginning from GBYP Phase 1 and continuing in all following Phases. Millions of records, which were not available before, have been collected so far; the trap fisheries data base now goes back in time until 1512. This activity comprises several tasks, as gathering of metadata about existing data sets, the acquisition of numerical data from these sources whenever possible, the compilation of ancient bibliography or grey literature not easily accessible, and even the recovery of old biological samples from archaeological excavations.
All data recovered by GBYP are quality-checked internally and by the Secretariat before their incorporation into the ICCAT database for SCRS uses, following the procedures established by the SCRS.