Bottom Trawl

Haddock are an important species for Irish demersal fisheries. In 2018, the Irish fleet landed 3500 tonnes worth approximately €6.5 million.   

Haddock live near the sea bed at depths between 10 and 200m and Irish waters provide important spawning and nursery areas for the species. Irish waters are at the southerly end of the distribution of haddock, allowing them to grow fast and mature early. They reach a length of around 27cm after two years of growth and most haddock are mature at age two. However, haddock are a cold water species and warm winters have been linked to poor recruitment success. All haddock stocks occasionally produce extremely large fluctuations in stock size which can make managing the stock at Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) level challenging. 

The vast majority of Irish haddock catches are made with trawls (otter trawls and seines). The Celtic Sea (ICES area 7b-k) is the most important area for Irish haddock fishing. 

TR1 gears (trawls and seines with a codend mesh size ≥100mm) are responsible for the majority of the haddock catch by Irish vessels in the Celtic Sea (57% of landings and discards in 7.b-c, e-k between 2014 and 2016; STECF, 2017a). The TR1 fishery in the Celtic Sea is characterized as a mixed fishery, mainly targeting gadoid species, such as haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), cod (Gadus morhua) and whiting (Merlangius merlangus) as well as anglerfish and megrim.  

TR2 gears (trawls and seines with a codend mesh size range 70-100mm) are responsible for most of the remainder of Irish haddock catches in the Celtic Sea (29% of landings and discards in 7.b-c, e-k between 2014 and 2016).  

This FIP concentrates on the stocks of the following species: Heterocarpus chani, H. woodmasoni and Aristeus alcocki. For the pre-assessment, the management unit is the stock of these three species found in Kerala coastal waters, mainly operating in an area called Kollam bank. 

The fishery is a mixed trawl fishery, with each vessel carrying six or seven types of trawl gear, including bottom, midwater and pelagic trawls. Each vessel may catch 200 – 250kg of shrimp per tow. The target Heterocarpus shrimp are caught in around 200-300 metres depth, with Aristeus alcocki mainly taken at 250-300m. Other deep-sea shrimp are also landed in the fishery, with for example Solenocera hextii being significant in the catch from ~150 meters. Small amounts of cephalopods and deep-sea shark species are also landed by the same boats.   

There are 700 – 750 boats operated from Sakthikulangra, and less than 50 from Vypin, 20% of which go fishing for deep-sea shrimp. Trips last between four and ten days, landing their catch in the early mornings in Kollam, which is the nearest landing site to the fishing grounds. A single vessel may do two to three hauls a day, with a towing duration of two to three hours. The fishing season is between September to May, with peak fishing from November to January. The SW monsoon brings bad weather to the coast of Kerala, which can prevent the fishery from starting until mid-September in some cases, as it takes two to three days steaming to reach the fishing grounds (Dr. Rehka Devi Chakraborty, CMFRI, pers. comm.). As with other mechanised trawl fisheries, the deep-sea fishery is subject to a ban during the monsoon period.

The responsibility for marine fisheries in India is shared between the National (Central) and State governments. The national legal framework in India gives individual States control of the seas and living marine resources up to 12 nautical miles (nm) from the shore, while the Central Government has control from 12 nm to the 200 nm exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundary. This fishery is managed by the Department of Fisheries, Government of Kerala. 

According to the World Bank (2010) report, there are five major legal instruments of the Central government that directly govern marine fisheries and activities:

• The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897;
• Marine Products Export Development Authority Act 1972 (No. 13 of 1972);
• The Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of fishing by foreign vessels) Act, 1981 (No. 42 of 1981);
• The Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of fishing by foreign vessels) Rules, 1982;
• The Operation of Deep Sea Fishing Vessels, 20m OAL and above, Notifications dated 14 December 2006.

State legislation is based on a model Act prepared by the central government in 1979 (World Bank, 2010) with each State developing its own marine fisheries legislation to manage fisheries in their respective area. In Kerala State, fisheries management is guided by the Kerala Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1980 (KMFR Act). It was amended in 2017 and is in the process of being implemented across the State.

The Panama Republic is a relatively small country in surface (75,000 Km²), but has a substantial biological potential as seafood producing country thanks to its geographic location. Panama coasts add up to 2,988 kilometers, 1,700 in the Pacific and 1,288 in the Caribbean. The continental shelf has an extension of 250,900 Km² and the Exclusive Economic Zone reaches 319,188 Km²

The fishing activity in Panama occurs mostly in the Pacific Ocean with 95%, where also 80% of the populations inhabits. The Gulf of Panama upwelling during the dry season is the basis for the relevant fishing activities in the Panamanian waters.

The industrial fishing operates in the Pacific Ocean and focus on shrimp, small pelagics for reduction, tuna, dolphin fish and finfish species, being the export markets the main objective. The industrial shrimp fishery is one of the main economic activities for Panama. This activity started in the 1950 with 50 vessels growing up to 307 in the 1980’s. For 2004 Panama had registered 249 industrial vessels with shrimp fishing license which diminished to 170 in 2005. Currently, due the low yields, the number of shrimp vessels is below 150.

The Panama shrimp fishery is a multispecific fishery being the Western white shrimp the most important in volume and value, followed by the Crystal and Fidel shrimps. The fishery has been for years the most important in terms of income, revenue and jobs generated. However, after years of excessive fishing effort and the noncompliance with the management measures have placed the shrimp populations in critical status resulting in decreasing landings which, combined with the weaknesses of the international market and the increasing producing costs, difficult the design and implementation of harvest strategies and harvest control rules aimed at recovering the stocks to sustainable levels, mitigate the fishery environmental impacts and to satisfy the increasing  demands for social and environmental responsibility in the markets for the Panamanian production.

Project UK Fisheries Improvements (PUKFI) is working towards an environmentally sustainable future for UK fisheries by running Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) on eight UK fisheries that have been selected by the UK supply chain. They were selected due to their importance for the UK market.

Nephrops are a commpercially important species of crustacean distributed throughout the northeast Atlantic from Iceland and the western coast of Norway in the north to the Atlantic coast of Morocco and the western and central Mediterranean. They are found predominantly in muddy sediment in which they build complex burrow systems, at depths of between 20 and 800m. Although they have a wide geographical range, there is no clear evidence of any significant migration between populations.

Total Annual Catch (TAC) quotas are set for each of the three ICES management divisions that overlay the Fishery, with total 2018 TAC set at 65,738t. Of this TAC, the West of Scotland, Irish Sea and North Sea Nehrops landed 42,622t (North Sea: 21,237t; West of Scotland: 11,842t; Irish Sea: 9,543t). Nephrops are predominantly landed by demersal trawl gear, accounting for 95% of landings, with the other 5% landed by creels. Scottish-registered vessels account for 67% of landings by weight, followed by Irish-registered vessels (27%) and English-registered vessels (6%).