Acronym FISBOAT
Category
Fisheries
Title Fisheries independent survey based operational assessment tools Programme FP6
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
FP6 - Specific Targeted Research Project
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
Research for Policy Support
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source European Coordinator Pierre Petitgas Coordinator email pierre.petitgas@ifremer.fr
Coordinator institution
IFREMER - French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (France)
Institutions involved
ARMINES - Association for the research and development of industrial methods and processes (France) ,
NA - Azti (Spain) ,
CEFAS - Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (United Kingdom) ,
FRS - Fisheries Research Services (United Kingdom) ,
ICL - Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (United Kingdom) ,
IMR - Institute of Marine Research (Norway) ,
SIBM - Italian Marine Biology Society (Italy) ,
NA - National Research Council - Institute of Marine Engineering (Italy) ,
MIR/SFI - Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia (Poland) ,
WUR - Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands) ,
Start year 2004 End year 2007 Funding (€) € 2,606,000 Website https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/502572 Summary The Fisboat project was aimed at developing fish stock assessment tools that are based on fishery independent research survey data only and evaluate how these tools perform in providing diagnostics and advice in different management contexts. The survey-based assessment included indices of demography, total mortality, spatial occupation, biological traits leading to comprehensive stock diagnostics. The project involved several disciplines: population biology, survey methods, stock assessment, management. The project case studies spanned a diversity of European stocks and regional seas : Barents sea cod, North Sea cod and herring, Baltic sea cod, Bay of Biscay hake and anchovy, Thyrrenean sea red mullet, Ionian sea hake, Aegean sea hake. The project has developed fishery-independent survey-based methods and tools to assess on fish stocks. The project has developed the capacity to calculate fish populations' indices of abundance, vital traits and spatial distribution, monitor changes in their time series and formulate comprehensive indicator-based diagnostics. The successful application of methods and tools to all project case studies proved the feasibility of the procedures and the operationality of the tools in providing fishery independent survey-based assessment and advice. Methods and applications were compiled as published manuals (ICES CM 2007/O:27 and O:16). The Fisboat indicator-based procedures suggest a way to achieve an operational and comprehensive monitoring system of fish stocks with an ecosystem perspective. The project has also developed survey-data-only assessment models which span a diverse range of data requirements, from aggregated biomass to length-structured and age-structured models. These models allow for the estimation of abundance, catchability and mortality indices. Models performances were bench-mark tested using simulated test data sets with known characteristics. A manual of methods compiling models documentations and performances was produced (ICES CM 2007/O:04). Because survey-based assessment procedures used indices and indicators, simulation evaluating their performance was a natural complement. The project developed under the FLR framework a simulation evaluation loop comprising an age-structured population model, a survey-like observation model, a harvest model as well as graphical and statistical outputs summarising simulation results. The tools and their case study applications were documented in specific manuals. The simulation experiments that were run on the case studies allowed to investigate key issues including which are the harvest rules that are robust to uncertainties in the population dynamics as well as in the precision of survey indices. The FLR simulation platform was appropriate for the current TAC-based management context within ICES waters. Another simulation platform (ALADYM) was also developed. It used a more biologically complex population model, which was useful in other management situations, e.g. Mediterranean waters, where fishery landings are not controlled and where so called 'technical measures' are envisaged as management options. The ALADYM simulation platform allowed to investigate combinations of fish stock biological traits with management measures on the long-term sustainability of the population. Methods, tools and results of applications to case studies were reported in documents produced as manuals. In all, the project developed operational tools and applied these on case study applications with success, thus demonstrating the possibility to monitor fish stocks using fishery-independent survey based procedures and provide advice in different management contexts. The comprehensive indicator based diagnostics combined with simulation evaluation tools had the potential to increase the reliability of the diagnostics and advices. Ways on how to create comprehensive assessments have been reported in a document cross-cutting all project aspects.
FISBOAT objectives are to develop fish stock assessment tools that are based on survey data only and evaluate how these perform in providing fisheries management advice.
Keywords
Fish;
Anchovy;
Cod;
Hake;
Herring;
Stock assessment;
Red mullet;
Marine Region
62
Aegean Sea (GSA 22)
35
West of Bay of Biscay (27.VIIIe)
34
Bay of Biscay offshore (27.VIIId)
42
Barents Sea (27.I)
5
Southern North Sea (27.IVc)
6
Central North Sea (27.IVb)
33
Bay of Biscay Southern (27.VIIIc)
12
Bay of Biscay North (27.VIIIa)
48
South Tyrrhenian Sea (GSA 10)
13
Northern North Sea (27.IVa)
47
Ligurian and North Tyrrhenian Sea (GSA 9)
15
Bay of Biscay Central (27.VIIIb)
12
Marine Region Map
