During 13-15 September 2000, the Scientific Council held the Special Session in conjunction with the 22nd Annual Meeting of NAFO, at the Boston Back Bay Hilton, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. D. Rivard (Canada) and C. Darby (EU-United Kingdom) were conveners, and R. K. Mayo (USA) played a key role in the preparation of the Workshop and the presentation of tutorials.

At its meeting of 18-22 September 2000, the Council evaluated this Workshop as a very informative and a valuable contribution to the work of the Scientific Council. While recommending that a workbook should be published in the Scientific Council Studies series. the Council noted the publication could constitute previously published information as well as public domain material. While there was a considerable time lapse in the preparation of the final texts and tutorials for this publication, the comprehensive coverage achieved in this publication is believed to be timely and important for scientists throughout the world dealing with stock assessments.

During 9-11 September 1992, the Scientific Council held a Special Session on "State-of-the-Art in Fish Assessment: a Tutorial/Workshop on Calibration Methods and Their Practical Use" at the NAFO Headquarters, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, with R. K. Mohn (Canada) and R. Cook (EEC-United Kingdom) as co-conveners. For use during this tutorial/workshop R. K. Mohn prepared a workbook titled Introduction to Sequential Population Analysis and R. Cook prepared a working paper on ICES VPA Tuning Methods, while some additional working papers were circulated during the sessions. At its meeting of 14-18 September 1992, the Scientific Council agreed that the ICES VPA tuning methods be included in a revised workbook and that all materials contained in the other working papers be incorporated in a publication of a single volume of NAFO Scientific Council Studies. The tutorial material prepared by the authors now form the body of this Workbook, and the other working papers are appended.