Sustainable bycatch in Danish fishery - Reasonable management under the landing obligation (39028)

The project facilitated a more robust advice of by-catch species in the Danish fishery in the Skagerrak by suggesting and testing stock assessment approaches for data poor stocks as well as providing guidance for various options to reduce by-catch without limiting the target fishery.

The approach applied in the projects was suggested to be adopted for other areas where the landing obligation potentially can be restrictive for target fisheries (mixed-fish cases). Through thorough exploration of existing data in survey time-series it was possible to provide size-based life-history models to gauge the sensitivity of stocks in relation to fishing pressure.

The models were used to determine relevant biological reference points for the most relevant by-catch species and the resulting assessment and stock status was then compared to the prevailing ICES/RGLIFE classification. Finally, the project suggested upgrading the stocks to a higher and less restrictive ICES category for management purposes where possible.

This project was coordinated by DTU Aqua and funded by the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and the European Fisheries Fund (EFF).

Research area: Marine Living Resources
Research area: Fisheries Management
Research area: Marine Populations and Ecosystem Dynamics