STRENGTHENING REGIONAL COOPERATION IN FISHERIES DATA COLLECTION

fishPi was a research project with the aim of “Strengthening regional cooperation in the area of fisheries data collection”. The project brought together over 40 experts from 13 scientific institutes in 12 countries (10 member states (MS)) and two internationally recognised survey design experts. It was funded by EU MARE grant MARE/2014/19, with a 14 month timeline commencing in April 2015. This project has trialled the way sampling designs would be developed in a regional setting and showed that collaboration and consultation is required at face to face meetings through regional groups that focus on a particular group of fisheries. The project was the first step in this process and one of the main outcomes is the framework to take the process forward; developing data formats, data sharing agreements and easily accessible software for data sharing, checking and analysis, and for the simulation testing of sampling designs.European Unio

Report of the 12th Liaison Meeting

The 12th Liaison meeting was held in Brussels on 8th and 9th October 2015 to address the following Terms of Reference: TOR 1. Discussion on possible follow-­‐‑up to the main outputs/recommendations of: • The 2015 RCMs -­‐‑ specific recommendations addressed to the Liaison Meeting • PGECON, PGDATA, PGMed – outcomes and recommendations from their 2015 meeting • STECF EWG and STECF Plenary -­‐‑ outcomes and recommendations from their 2015 meetings • Data end users (ICES, STECF, RFMOs – GFCM, IATTC, ICCAT, IOTC, WCPFC, NAFO, SPRFMO, CECAF, WECAFC) TOR2. End user feedback on data transmission and related issues • Discuss feedback received from data end-­‐‑users on data transmission: main issues and possible harmonization of end user feedback to the Commission • JRC data transmission IT platform: experience gained and future steps • Discuss best practices on automatization of data upload by MS: data validation tools used by end users • Discussion on new set-­‐‑up for STECF evaluation of AR2014 & data transmission 2014 used in 2015 – continue like this next year? • Harmonisation and dissemination of DCF metadata: codelists, metiers, nomenclatures, best practices, standards • RCM data calls – overview of how MS responded TOR 3. Regional cooperation • Call for proposals MARE/2014/19 'ʹStrengthening Regional Cooperation in the area of fisheries data collection– state of play'ʹ. Presentation by a representative of the two RCG grants and discussions by LM thereafter. What should be the way forward? • Regional databases • Overview of use of the Regional Databases for RCMs in 2015 and problems identified • Other developments (RDB trainings in 2015, RDB Med&BS development) • Changes for the future – any recommendations from the LM? • Future role of RCMs and DCF-­‐‑related meetings: best practices, coordination, cohesion and common structure in line with emerging needs of DCF TOR 4. EU MAP • Discuss recommendations/ output of RCMs: List of proposed stocks, landing obligation, metiers • Discuss design-­‐‑based sampling in relation to DCF: does it fulfil DCF requirements? TOR 5. Availability of data • Overview of latest developments (DCF Database Feasibility Study and plans for a follow-­‐‑up study to this) TOR 6. AOB • Agree on a list of recommendations relating to DCF (that MS will need to report on in their AR2015) – COM will provide a compilation of proposed recommendations from LM & STECF Plenaries in 2014 as input • Prepare a list of recommended meetings for 2016 as guidance for MS • Review and prioritize DCF-­‐‑related study proposals from RCMs, PGECON, EGs etc • ICES update on workshop on concurrent sampling and plans to re-­‐‑evaluate survey

Report of the Regional Co-ordination Meeting for the North Sea and Eastern Arctic (RCM NS&EA) 2014

Report of the Regional Co-ordination Meeting for the North Sea and Eastern Arctic (RCM NS&EA) 2014 Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences (SLU Aqua) Lysekil, Sweden 08-12 September 2014The RCM NS&EA met in Lysekil (Sweden) between 8-12 September 2014. The main purpose of the RCM is coordinate the National Programmes (NP) of the Member States (MS) in the North Sea region for 2015

Report of the Regional Co-ordination Meeting for the North Sea and Eastern Arctic (RCM NS&EA) 2013

Report of the Regional Co-ordination Meeting for the North Sea and Eastern Arctic (RCM NS&EA) 2013 final report European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) Vigo, Spain 09/09/2013-13/09/2013The Regional Coordination Meeting for the North Sea & Eastern Arctic (RCM NS&EA) was held in September 2013 in Vigo (Spain). The main task of the RCM’s is to coordinate the National Programmes (NP), which propose the national data collection to be carried out by the Member States (MS) under the EU Data Collection Framework (DCF). It was envisaged that, from 2104 onwards, data collection by the MS would be carried out under a new framework (DC-MAP). However, the legislation for this framework is not ready yet. Therefore the Commission has decided to extend the present DCF for the time being and the most recent NPs have been adopted for 2014. Since these NP have been adopted without any changes, there is no need for major coordinatio

Report of the Regional Co-ordination Meeting for the North Sea and Eastern Arctic (RCM NS&EA) 2015

The RCM NS&EA met 31st August - 4th September 2015 at den Haag, Netherlands with 27 participants form 11 member states and autonomous regions attending, including representatives of ICES and the Commission. National correspondents from Spain, UK, Denmark, Lithuania, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands were present. The meeting was co-chaired by Katja Ringdahl (Sweden) and Alastair Pout (Scotland). The RCM N&SEA considered the recommendations from the 11th Liasion meeting and summaries were presented of the work of expert groups and end users for the 2014-15 period to the plenary session of the meeting. The expert groups included WGCATCH, PGDATA, WKISCON2, WKRDB 2014-01, RDB–SC, STECF and the Zagreb meeting on transversal variables. ICES, as a main end user, provided feedback. A summary was presented of the progress in the regional coordination project (fishPi). This project involves over 40 participants from 12 members states from NS&EA, NA and Baltic regions, two external statistical experts, and ICES. The project has a wide scope of regional cooperation issues including sampling designs, data formats, code lists, PETS, stomach sampling, small scale and recreational sampling, and data quality software production. It has a budget of €400,000, and a one year time line and with a planned completion date of April 2016. A project with identical aims is running in paralleled in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions The majority of the ToRs of the RCM NS&EA were addressed by three subgroups: one concerned with data analysis, one with the landing obligation, and one with issues particularly related to role and work of national correspondents

Report of the Regional Co-ordination Meeting for the North Sea and Eastern Arctic (RCM NS&EA) 2016

The Regional Coordination Meeting NS&EA met in Edinburgh from 5th to 9th September 2016. Thirty four participants from 12 members states, representatives from Commission and ICES were in attendance. The meeting was largely devoted to subgroup work relating to regional sampling, cost sharing models, data needs and the sampling of anadromous and catadromous specie

Modelling the movements of the Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus from radio-tracking data

This thesis explores ways of modelling of animal movement that are applicable to empirical data, using the Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus as the model species. Radio-tracking data on sparrowhawks were gathered during the breeding seasons of 2002 and 2003 in rural Aberdeenshire. In all, 15 sparrowhawks were tracked including provisioning males, females, non-breeding adults and dispersing juveniles. An analysis of quantified movements’ characteristics (move length, stopping times and distance from the nest site) in relation to behavioural, climatic and temporal variables, aggregated at various spatio-temporal scales, indicated that ambient temperature and wind speed affected sparrowhawk foraging range and the duration of foraging trips.  There was however, little temporal pattern in recorded movements. A method of quantifying home range movements is proposed whereby habitually used sites were identified using cluster analysis of radio-tracking locations.  The discrete movements around these sites by individual sparrowhawks can be considered as a Markov process and quantified in terms of a transition matrix.  The equilibrium properties of such a matrix are then used to quantify the expected long term distribution of the individual within the home range.  Modelling of transition probabilities suggests that much of the variation in observed movement patterns of three provisioning male sparrowhawks was explicable in terms of the spatial arrangement of the sites within the home range and that there was little variation between the behaviour of individual sparrowhawks. Finally, a mechanistic discrete space movement model was developed based on a few simple behavioural rules.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Modelling Vessel Activity in the Scottish Pelagic Fleet: The Relationship between Capacity and Effort and the Evaluation of a Range of Possible Management Plans

There is increasing interest both in Europe and further afield in moving beyond traditional TAC based approaches to fishery management, towards effort and/or capacity based management regimes. This paper presents the results of a case study on effort and capacity metrics in the Scottish pelagic fleet. Data from 2003 to 2006 were used to model the activities of this fleet to create a series of linked process models that simulate the trip by trip activity of vessels exploiting the mackerel, herring and blue whiting fisheries in the North Sea and Western Atlantic. Scaling the predicted port departure probabilities for the 2003-2006 period allows changes in effort within the fleet to be simulated. This suggests that fleet capacity would be 260,000 tonnes for mackerel with mean days at sea per vessel of 119 days, in comparison with the mean over the 2003-2006 period of 126,900 tonnes which corresponds to 58 days at sea per vessel. Likewise the capacity of the fleet in the herring fishery would be 151,700 tonnes with a mean of 53 days at sea per vessel, in comparison to 57,310 tonnes and 20 days at sea per vessel for the 2003-2006 period. Simulations also suggest that days at sea limitations are likely to be a more effective management measure to regulate landings than closed seasons and that, at least for the mackerel fishery, vessel reduction schemes would result in a proportionate decrease in landings that would not vary greatly regardless of which vessels were removed from the fleet. Trends in vessel specifications since 1980 are likely to have increased the capacity of the fleet within the mackerel fishery by approximately 46%.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair