THE National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations in collaboration with the North Sea Regional Advisory Council and other Fishermen’s representative bodies are again running the North Sea Stocks Survey that invites fishermen to contribute their knowledge on the status and trends in stocks subject to TACs.
The NFFO say the survey is now into its 7th year and the growing time series it is producing is becoming ever more valuable. As well as regularly being referred to in ICES advice, analysis of the full time series this year demonstrated that the evidence corroborates well with other data that feeds into the stocks assessments.
The organisation continues: “This offers the opportunity for the time series to be incorporated as an active element in the assessments in order to tune their outputs and subsequent advice on setting fishing opportunities. It also demonstrates that information from the industry which is often disregarded as being anecdotal or tainted, in fact can be a valuable source of scientific information if gathered in a systemic way.
The Federation says it continues to work to see that the survey results are maximised to their full potential in the stocks assessment process and in representing the views of the fishing industry in the autumn negotiations on fishing opportunities.
Should people be 'stimulated' to eat white fish alternatives to cod?
