The UK’s Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has released its North Sea cod catch quota trials final report for 2014 which reveals very low levels of cod discards, but high levels for saithe and hake.
The main aims of the trial were to further investigate the potential of catch quota management to reduce discard levels with particular focus on how mixed fisheries will be affected.
MMO also wanted to enhance its data collection to improve fisheries science and advice and investigate the potential for likely ‘choke’ species in North Sea mixed demersal fisheries.
The trial was conducted with 16 vessels in the North Sea. Each vessel was fitted with Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) and was required to operate under a discard ban for North Sea (Area IV) cod.
Fishing operations were monitored for compliance with the requirement to retain and land all catches of cod by means of a 10% audit of REM data and CCTV footage.
The audit results showed very low levels of discards of cod (less than 1%) indicating that the vessels are compliant with the landing obligation, and is comparative with previous trials.
Analysis was also undertaken on saithe, haddock and hake discards for two vessels chosen at random. The results showed high levels of discarding, particularly for saithe and hake. The discard data was generated from CCTV footage by converting length measurements to weight.
MMO said that whilst this study does not aim to derive fleet-level discard estimates, the efficacy of using REM/CCTV as a data collection tool continues to show potential. It has been shown to be effective when corrobating data and is a cost-effective tool for monitoring the landing obligation.
