Acronym NA
Category
Fisheries
Title Environmentally Responsible Fishing - a Pilot Research Project to Quantify the Environmental Footprint of Inshore Fisheries 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 Julian Addison Coordinator email julian.addison@cefas.co.uk
Coordinator institution
CEFAS - Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (United Kingdom)
Institutions involved
NA - Not available (Not available) ,
Start year 2008 End year 2010 Funding (€) € NA Website NA Summary To quantify the biological and economic components of the environmental footprint of commercial fishing vessels targeting finfish in inshore waters (generally within 12nm) off England. The project will develop a range of indicators associated with all components of the fishing operation. This information will fill key gaps in the evidence base for these activities which in turn will be used to inform the implementation of Fisheries 2027. In particular, on defining an acceptable impact of producing and consuming fish; on ensuring fishing activity contributes to local communities; on optimising economic returns from fish stocks; and on equitable access to fish stocks by commercial and recreational users and to ensure that fishing activity contributes to local communities.
The aim of the project was to collect detailed information on fishing activities, catches, discards and economic data from participating vessels, and was restricted to three pilot areas; off the northeast coast centred on Hartlepool; off the east coast centred around Lowestoft and in the Thames Estuary. The project was aimed primarily at under 10 metre vessels. The focus was on vessels that are heavily reliant on quota stocks, and therefore vessels that target primarily shellfish were not included as these vessels can generally have a lower environmental impact. Participating vessels were required to complete detailed log books on all of their fishing activities. The vessels were allowed to land, and sell, all catches outside quota restrictions, under derogation for research purposes, as long as the fish were above the minimum landing size and vessels adhered to technical conservation measures. This was to provide information on the catching capacity of the inshore fleet as well as providing an incentive for full participation as the level of data recording required was relatively time-consuming. Vessels were restricted to an annual limit on fishing days based upon historical records to ensure that fishing effort did not increase significantly in the pilot areas over the course of this project. The specific scientific objectives were: (1) Ensure sufficient participation of eligible vessels from each of the three pilot areas to ensure a good coverage of the main fishing activities undertaken by the under 10m fleet; (2) Fit each participating vessel with a suitable automatic vessel monitoring system that records the position of the vessel at 15-minute intervals; (3) Design and introduce a log book that provides good quality data on species and size composition of catches, discarding practices and economic data, and which is acceptable to participating vessel skippers; (4) Undertake observer trips on each participating vessel at least three times to collect additional biological information; (5) Analyse samples of the discarded catch brought ashore by participating vessels; (6) Review progress of the project on a monthly basis to ensure that a sufficient number of vessels are still participating, that the quality of data provided by participating vessels is of sufficient quantity and quality, and assess whether fishing effort has increased within this sector of the fleet following the introduction of the scheme; (7) Analyse biological and economic data and develop indicators of the environmental footprint of the under 10m fleet, and the economic characterisation of the vessels; (8) Collate industry suggestions for more environmentally friendly fishing practices and identify research priorities to enable quantitative analysis of the effect of inshore fishing practices; (9) Produce final report of project and present results in a form suitable for fishermen, other stakeholders and Defra policy-makers.
Keywords
Discard;
Fishing vessels;
Fisheries management;
Fishery policy;
Environmental impact;
Marine Region
6
Central North Sea (27.IVb)
5
Southern North Sea (27.IVc)
2
Marine Region Map
