The landing obligation in European fisheries: discard reporting by observer programs and automatic technology

Fisheries observers and landing obligation Otter bottom trawl targeting demersal species in north Iberian waters is a mixed fishery which takes place throughout the year targeting European hake, anglerfish, megrim, horse mackerel and blue whiting. An standardized scientific observer program is carried out to analyze and raise the data to obtain discard estimates for stock assessment every year. In this work, a dedicate observer program was set up to study the application of the landing obligation in coastal trawling fleet. The study involves both scientific oceanographic vessels and commercial vessels to characterize discards and record unwanted species occurrence. Observer trials and an automatic observer were used to test the potential use of discard recording by fishermen and scientist to comply with landing obligation regulation

Promoting an Optimal Networking of Fishing Actors to Organize a Responsible, Optimal and Sustainable Exploitation of Marine Resources: the FAROS Initiative

In the aim of promoting the responsible and sustainable management of the European fishing activity, the European Commission took a number of actions oriented to the implementation of “no-discard” and “zero-waste” policies to be followed by the European fishing fleets in the near future. In particular, actions were directed to the development of policies to reduce unwanted by-catches and eliminate discards in European fisheries, as well as to make the best possible use of the captured resources avoiding its waste. In this sustainability framework, the FAROS Projects (co-funded under the LIFE+ Environmental Program of the European Union) aims at developing and implementing an efficient and integral discards and by-catch management network based on a global and real-time information system both on board and in land. This network implies all actors present in the fishing sector (fleets, ports, auctions, industries, etc.) and takes advantage of the existing synergies between them in order to attain the minimization of discards/by-catch as well as their optimal valorization to recover and to produce valuable chemicals of interest in the food and pharmaceutical industry