The proposed reform to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) sets out a move to a
land-all catch policy for EU fishing vessels, with a requirement for full
reporting of fishing and onboard processing activity. Recent trials in several
Member States for ‘Fully Documented Fisheries’ (FDFs) operating with catch
quotas have demonstrated how Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) technology can
be utilised to deliver the monitoring requirements for FDFs. However, both the
fishing industry and fisheries managers recognise that REM may not be suitable
for all fisheries, so there is a need to evaluate REM alongside other
approaches to documenting activity, such as observers, self-sampling and
self-reporting reference fleets, so that each approach can be assessed in
terms of its suitability and applicability to different fisheries. The main
objective of this study was to explore the applicability of different
technology and approaches to the full documentation of catch for various types
of fishing. This includes exploring whether the technologies can deliver the
information required, what practical considerations need to be taken into
account, and what industry drivers and incentives are required to deliver
fully documented catches. This information is required for the successful
translation of the policy objective into practice. The project had the
following four main objectives.To establish:
( 1.)What data are required to deliver fully documented fisheries
( 2.)What mechanisms are available to collect the data required for full
documentation
( 3.)What are the relative merits of different approaches and technologies
( 4.)Whether different fishery characteristics might benefit from different
FDF approaches.
