Acronym NA
Category
Fisheries
Title Exploration of fishing capacity and fishing activity and their utility for effort management control of fishing mortality Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Anne McLay Coordinator email psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk
Coordinator institution
FRS - Fisheries Research Services (United Kingdom)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2003 End year 2007 Funding (€) € NA Website NA Summary A key priority arising from discussions between policy makers and scientists was the development of effort management controls. It is generally recognised that TAC based management approaches have failed to maintain stocks and fisheries at sustainable levels, and alternative approaches, including effort management require investigation. A progressive reduction of the fleets' size has taken place, and further reductions seem necessary. This has been based on the assumption of a direct relationship existing between fleet size, fishing effort and fishing mortality. The scientific basis for such a relationship need to be further developed to underpin future policy action in this area. This topic is also a priority of EU FP6 funding, and it is envisaged that additional funding would be sought from this source to expand and continue the study. In order to develop ideas on effort management, it is necessary to determine the factors that influence fishing capacity (catching ability), and establish relationships between fishing activity (hours fished), fishing capacity and fishing mortality. Improved scientific knowledge should enable policymakers to administer fishing capacity and fishing effort in a more concerted manner. This project would act as a pilot study, investigating these aspects for a portion of the Scottish demersal and pelagic fleets, to provide preliminary estimates and guidelines for the design of a more comprehensive study. The project will build on existing experience at the FRS Marine Laboratory in relation to fishing gear, confidential logbooks and effort mapping. Data will be collected to determine the accuracy of current Official Statistics on landings, effort and fleet structure. Fishing capacity will be investigated in relation to vessel and gear characteristics. Using this information, the relative contributions to overall fishing mortality from each of the component fleets can be investigated, enabling the exploration of various methods of effort management in order to control fishing mortality. Given the scale of the overall task, and the pilot nature of this study, only North Sea components of Scottish fisheries would be investigated in the first instance. This will mean that although relative measures of fishing capacity will be estimated for each of the Scottish fleets', the full relationships between capacity, effort and mortality, and hence the modelling of effort management, can only be explored for the North Sea haddock and Nephrops fisheries, where Scottish vessel are the major contributors. For other fisheries, data for other important fleets would not be available, although this would be the goal of a larger EU project.
Keywords
Fishing effort;
Fisheries management;
Marine Region
6
Central North Sea (27.IVb)
26
Northwest Coast of Scotland and North Ireland (27.VIa)
13
Northern North Sea (27.IVa)
3
Marine Region Map
