The SS3 VRE is a tool that hosts codes necessary to run the Stock Synthesis version 3.24 (SS3) stock assessment model (a widely-used statistical catch-at-age model), parallelize, visualize and store the standardized data outputs, make projections, and automate the reporting. Stock assessment software are complex and advanced technical skills are required to develop the models. Producing output becomes time-intensive and even more complex as thousands of simulations must be run on supercomputers in order to include the multiple sources of uncertainty in assessment results. As few stock assessment participants have the specific technical skills required to reproduce these outputs, IRD, IFREMER, the IOTC and FAO have partnered with the H2020 BlueBridge project to develop a simple online tool in the form of a VRE to facilitate the use of SS3 to users with varying levels of expertise. The VRE enables any user to easily parameterize, execute and edit online various steps of the stock assessment work flow. It provides several collaborative web services, including: (i) a workspace to share documents, codes or data, (ii) an RStudio server to process data online, (iii) R Shiny applications to quickly and easily visualize the output of model runs, and (iv) Sharelatex to provide a platform for an automated reporting service to dynamically generate documents to package the results. Currently, the SS3 VRE has replicated and made available the results of past IOTC stock assessments of swordfish (SWO, Xiphias gladius), bigeye tuna (BET; Thunnus obesus), yellowfin tuna (YFT; Thunnus albacares), skipjack tuna (SKJ, Katsuwonus pelamis) provided by the IOTC and their consultants. We have recently added the 2015 stock assessment of greater amberjack (GAJ, Seriola dumerili) and a new SS3 model of Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT, Thunnus thynnus) provided by our partners at NOAA. Theoretically, any species model can be similarly replicated.
