DCF Data Call Coverage Report for the Black Sea in 2012

This Data Collection Framework (DCF) coverage report was prepared by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) as part of an Administrative Arrangement with DG MARE. The present report provides an overview of the timeliness and completeness of the Member States data submissions to JRC in response to the 2012 call for Black Sea fisheries data issued by DG MARE under the DCF (Council Regulation No 199/2008).JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Identifying key stakeholders and developing a roadmap for the risk assessment

Escapes or releases of domesticated aquaculture fish pose a potential risk of adverse effects on native fish gene pools. The FP7 project AquaTrace applies molecular genetic tools, which will improve the ability for tracing farmed fish in the wild and for documentation of their potential effects on wild conspecifics. Based on the scientific insights the project provides a risk assessment and management recommendations concerning the genetic impact of aquaculture fish on wild fish gene pools. In the frame of the AquaTrace project, this document aims to identify the key stakeholders and to draw a roadmap for the risk assessment in line with the relevant work package.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

DCF ECONOMIC DATA CALL 2013 ON AQUACULTURE SECTOR: Coverage Report

This Data Collection Framework (DCF) coverage report was prepared by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) as part of an Administrative Arrangement with DG MARE. The document provides an overview of the timeliness and completeness of the Member States data submissions to JRC in response to the call for aquaculture data concerning 2008-2011 issued by DG MARE under the DCF (Council Regulation No 199/2008). The report also provides some indication of data quality, summarising major quality issues detected by Expert Working Group convened under the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF EWG 13-10). The report is part of the end user feedback provided to DG MARE to facilitate the evaluation of EU Member State compliance with obligations under the DCF.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Deterring Illegal Activities in the Fisheries Sector - Genetics, Genomics, Chemistry and Forensics to Fight IUU Fishing and in Support of Fish Product Traceability

Marine fish are a precious natural resource and their exploitation for nutrition and income is deeply embedded in human culture. However, massive fi shing activity, both legal and illegal, has had dramatic impacts, and poses a threat to the future of the fi sheries sector. Virtually 70% of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited or in a state of collapse. European waters are not exempt, with almost 90% of fi sh stocks being overexploited. IUU fi shing (Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing) is vastly contributing to this situation. In 2010, the value of IUU fi shing amounted to 10-20 billion Euros annually, with at least 1.1 billion Euros worth of illegal fish being imported into the European Union every year. Furthermore, fraud along the supply chain with fish products sold under false labels, such as low-cost catfish as valuable sole or cod fillets, poses additional challenges. These illegal activities have severe adverse effects, as they undermine stainable fisheries, cause destruction of marine ecosystems, obstruct socioeconomic development, and impede consumer information and protection. A number of nations have developed strategies to deter and fi ght illegal fishing activities, and numerous countries have adopted the International Plan of Action to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU Fishing (IPOAIUU), that has been developed in 2001 within the framework of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries by the FAO. The European Union has recently taken further initiatives and developped two major and complementing legal instruments: in January 2010, Council regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 (1), - the ‘IUU regulation’, entered into force, and in November 2009, Council regulation (EC) No 1224/2009[1] (2) - the new Control regulation- establishing a Community control system was adopted and is in the process of being implemented. Both regulations place emphasis on detailed catch documentation and traceability for fishery products ‘from ocean to fork’, that is, covering all stages of the supply chain from catch, to landing, transport, processing, and the markets. Traceability is generally acknowledged as being a highly powerful tool in support of monitoring, control and enforcement in the fisheries sector. However, currently it is mainly based on certifi cates accompanying goods, and labelling of products, both measures which are vulnerable to falsification. So how can inspectors and control and enforcement authorities validate and authenticate the information provided by documentation? How can the industry assure that the fi sh it is processing and selling is what it is supposed to be, e.g. the correct species and fi shed legally? And fi nally how can the consumer be certain that the information provided for fi sh products is correct? A system is needed to effectively trace fi sh products throughout the food supply chain that is supported by independent control measures. Likewise control and enforcement authorities need effi cient analytical tools for generating evidence in court trials. Molecular techniques based on genetics, genomics and chemistry, and embedded in a forensic framework, have great potential in this respect. This JRC report describes available molecular techniques and technologies and discusses how these can be used for traceability and in support of fi sheries control and enforcement. The report provides examples of cases where molecular techniques were employed to reveal fi sheries fraud and to generate evidence in court cases. These examples clearly demonstrate the feasibility and operational potential of the techniques in real-world contexts. Furthermore, the report explores possibilities for translating forensic genetics and chemistry into a European fi sheries control and enforcement framework, within the context of the current EU policies and legislation.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Deep Sea – Close Kin: A Genetic Approach for Improved Fisheries Management

Deep-sea fish stocks consist of species that live at depths of greater than 400 metres. While being important for EU fisheries, this natural renewable resource is particularly vulnerable to over-fishing, as many deep sea species are slow-growing and commonly of low fecundity. Generally little is known about the biology of deep sea species, and there prevails a substantial lack of scientific data on deep-sea stocks. This constitutes a major impediment to management strategies underpinning sustainable and profitable deep sea fisheries. Europe’s deep-sea fisheries began in the 1970’s and were entirely unregulated. The fleet grew as rewards were high, but many species were rapidly depleted. It was only in 2003 that a management plan was brought into action. While some measures to better protect commercially exploited deep sea fish have been adopted, such as the limitation of fishing effort or total allowable catches, these have been insufficient to allow stocks to recover and there is a general consensus that most deep-water stocks remain below safe biological limits for exploitation. In a recent communication to the Council and the European Parliament, the European Commission has emphasized the need to improve our knowledge on deep sea fish species to move away from the current prevailing unsustainable exploitation. Ideally, this would be the development of a robust and practical approach to estimate the abundance of deep sea species to support stock assessments and reduce the uncertainty about the state and rebuilding rates of commercially exploited deep sea stocks. The current rapid technology development and concurrent steep drop in costs of large-scale genotyping offers major opportunities for fisheries management. This report explores whether the concept of genetic close-kin abundance estimation, recently applied to establish biomass estimates of Southern Bluefin Tuna, can be applied to fisheries management of deep sea fish species.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Enhancing fish species identification using novel markers and emerging technologies

Establishing an efficient traceability framework for fish products is crucial for consumer protection and fisheries management and conservation. This is well reflected in the EU legislation. The EU general food law emphasizes strongly that European citizens must have access to safe and wholesome food of the highest standard. Consumer protection is supported by a stringent traceability concept as stipulated in Regulation (EC) 178/2002. This notion is also expressed in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) basic regulation (EU) 1380/2013, according to which fishing and aquaculture must be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable while providing a source of healthy food for all EU citizens. Under the CFP the need for traceability is not exclusively raised in the context of consumer protection, but also as a necessary component for fisheries control and enforcement in Regulation (EU) 1224/2009 and in the context of the EU’s ambitious strategy to fight Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing under the remit of Regulation (EC) 1005/2008. Recent scientific advances, particularly in the fields of genetics and genomics, have led to the development of novel and improved technologies, and efforts are under way to harness their potential for the species identification of unknown fish samples or products. This report reviews these efforts, describing the technologies and the early results obtained for fish product traceability. Each of these technologies have the potential to fill some specific existing gaps, although they come with their own individual set of disadvantages. Understanding those and monitoring progress is thus crucial for their proper integration in existing traceability frameworks.JRC.F.7-Knowledge for Health and Consumer Safet

Evaluating genetic traceability methods for captive bred marine fish and their applications in fisheries management and wildlife forensics

Growing demands for marine fish products is leading to increased pressure on already depleted wild populations and a rise in the aquaculture production. Consequently, more captive bred fish are released into the wild through accidental escape or deliberate restocking, stock enhancement and sea ranching programs. The increased mixing of captive bred fish with wild conspecifics may affect the ecological and/or genetic integrity of wild fish populations. From a fisheries management perspective unambiguous identification tools for captive bred fish will be highly valuable to manage risks. Additionally there is great potential to use these tools in wildlife forensics (i.e. tracing back escapees to their origin and determining mislabelling of seafood products). Using SNP data from captive bred and wild populations of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) and sole (Solea solea L.), we explored the efficiency of population and parentage assignment techniques for the identification and tracing of captive bred fish. Simulated and empirical data were used to correct for stochastic genetic effects. Overall, parentage assignment performed well when a large effective population size characterizes the broodstock and escapees originate from early generations of captive breeding. Consequently, parentage assignments are particularly useful from a fisheries management perspective to monitor the effects of deliberate releases of captive bred fish on wild populations. Population assignment proved to be more efficient after several generations of captive breeding, which makes it a useful method in forensic applications for well-established aquaculture species. We suggest the implementation of a case by case strategy when choosing the best method

DNA-analysis to monitor Fisheries and Aquaculture: Too costly?

Evidence from DNA‐analysis is commonplace in human criminal investigations, and while it is increasingly being used in wildlife crime, to date, its application to control and enforcement activities in fisheries and aquaculture has only been sporadic. Contemporary DNA‐analysis tools are capable of addressing a broad range of compliance issues, species identification, mislabelling of fish products, determining the origin of catches and the farm of origin of aquaculture escapees. Such applications have the potential to ensure traceability along the fish product supply chain and to combat consumer fraud and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing. Nevertheless, DNA‐analysis is not yet used routinely in investigations into compliance with fisheries and aquaculture legislation. One potential reason for this is that DNA‐analysis techniques may have been regarded as too expensive. However, costs have plummeted over the past decade prompting us to objectively assess whether the costs associated with routine use of DNA‐analysis techniques for fisheries and aquaculture control and enforcement activities do constitute an impediment. Based on a number of recent fisheries and aquaculture compliance investigations that incorporated DNA‐analysis, our results indicate that the use of genetic analysis was justified and worthwhile in all cases examined. We therefore conclude that the costs associated with DNA‐analysis do not represent a barrier to the routine adoption of DNA‐analysis techniques in fisheries and aquaculture compliance investigations. Thus, control and enforcement agencies should be encouraged to use such techniques routinely