Torreele, E.

Vandemaele, S.

Open Marine Archive

108  | ICES SGPIDS REPORT 2011 
 
Annex 9: Belgian self-sampling programme 
Belgian self-sampling programme: cod in VIIfg 
On request and initiative of the Belgian fisheries sector, the Institute for Agricultural 
and Fisheries Research (ILVO), in close cooperation with the fisheries sector, started a 
self-sampling programme to identify the impact of the Belgian beam trawl fishery on 
the Celtic Sea (areas VIIf and VIIg) cod stock. Since February 2010, fishers of 10 com-
mercial vessels are participating in the pilot project on a voluntary basis. The skippers 
and crew were trained by scientists of ILVO to follow a standard sampling protocol 
for collecting and recording data. Data are being collected from several levels: 
• Trip/vessel-related data: vessel name, trip number, fishing gear used, de-
parture and return time,. 
• Haul-related data: number and date of haul, time and position of shooting 
and hauling, ICES statistical rectangle, normal haul (Yes/No+why), 
Lengths recorded (Yes/No), remarks… 
• Weight-related data from all hauls: Total landing weights of sole, plaice, 
haddock and cod  (gutted weight) and discard weights (life weight) of cod 
• Length distributions from every second haul: length measurements of 
landed and discarded cod 
In order to ensure that the data from the self-sampling programme reaches the re-
quired high quality standards, the self-sampling data are cross checked in two ways:  
• Cod landings from the self-sampling programme will be compared to the 
cod landings recorded in the fish market. 
• The weights, numbers and LFDs of the landed and discarded cod from the 
self-sampling programme will be compared to observer data of vessels 
fishing with similar spatial and temporal attributes.  
In total, 37 trips were sampled by fishers in 2010. Based on the cross-checks men-
tioned above, there will be decided which trips can be accepted and validated. Fur-
ther analyses on the validated data will be conducted.  
Based on the first results, it seems that the Belgian self-sampling project allows a seri-
ous increase in spatial as well as temporal coverage and reduces the problems of very 
large raising factors based on scientific observer data only. Furthermore, the engage-
ment of the industry in the collection of fisheries data is creating a better relationship 
between the scientists and fishers and we hope that this cooperation will improve the 
quality of the data available to scientists and ultimately to the stock assessment work-
shops. 
 
Sofie Vandemaele1, Els Torreele1 
 
1 Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Ankerstraat 1, B-8400 Oos-
tende, Belgium 
E-mail: sofie.vandemaele@ilvo.vlaanderen.be  


Annex 9: Belgian self-sampling programme

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