The WG agreed the following recommendations:

• a sub-group should investigate the idea of regional Centres of Excellence for developing countries and produce a pilot proposal to cover Latin America
• a second sub-group should investigate the training needs of developing countries and recommend ways and means by which these could be met and funded
• the PIs of POST and TOPP should encouraged to evaluate the RAFOS 'fish chip' as soon as this technology receives funding for the next stage of development
• the uptake of electronic tags to investigate distribution, migration and behaviour of marine mammals, fish and other organisms in Latin America should be encouraged
• the development and application of landers is recommended as a technical area deserving support
• a sub-group(s) should be set up to expedite the adoption of emerging technologies needed for the CoML programme, in particular LIDAR and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (formulated after conclusion of meeting)
• a representative from MBARI should be invited to join WG 118 to assist expedite the development and uptake of new technologies (suggested by Dave Mellinger after conclusion of meeting)
• a representative of OBIS should be asked to brief WG118 on present and future developments and, if appropriate, join WG118 (suggested by Jan Rines after conclusion of meeting)

The WG placed on record the following supplementary comments:

• all biological samples should be preserved in a form suitable for genetic analysis

The WG identified the need for technological developments in the following areas:

• sampling of zooplankton in thin layers
• automated species identification by multi-frequency acoustics, in particular development of appropriate algorithms