Sustainable, cost effective and responsive gear solutions under the landing obligation (FAST TRACK I) (39323)

With the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and the introduction of a Landing Obligation the ability of fishers to adjust the selectivity of their gears to suit the quotas which are available to them will be an important factor in determining the revenue and profitability in the fishery.

As the combination of gear, fishing practice and quota shares will differ between vessels, changes to the selectivity of the gears will need to be implemented at the vessel level and based on the quotas which are available to the vessel at a given time. For this to be realized, simple and cost effective solutions which can be quickly coupled with existing gears will be in demand.

These solutions will need to be implemented quickly in order for them to solve the issues at hand without losing substantial income. Furthermore, these solutions will need to be scientifically tested to document their effect before being considered for implementation into the legislation.

Fast-Track aims to increase flexibility and ownership over the gears used while ensuring an effective introduction of the new EU Common Fisheries Policy. To achieve this, Fast-Track aims to facilitate the development of more selective gears by providing the industry with the possibility to take a more proactive role in the development and testing of new ideas. Here we try to facilitate a more bottom-up approach where the industry are responsible for coming up with the ideas they feel applicable for their fishery, as well as having an important role in the testing of the gear and the collection of the data. Furthermore, it aims to speed up the testing process and diversity of gears being tested by initially having the industry to define the idea and carry out a development/ pre-test to refine the gears performance before proceeding to a more rigorous scientific test.

The expected effects of the project are
1. the establishment of a permanent platform comprised of stakeholders (fishermen, net makers producer organizations, managers and scientists) which can facilitate the development of ideas and solutions originating from the industry.
2. that the industry becomes more proactive role in the development and testing of solutions for the effective implementation of the landing obligation.
3. that the close cooperation between industry and researchers leads to greater ownership of the solutions developed.
4. the speed with which innovative tools are developed, tested and approved is reduced while profitability and sustainability are increased.

Partners
DTU Aqua, National Institute of Aquatic Resources (coordinator)
Aalborg University, Denmark
Danish Fishermen PO, DenmarkSINTEF, Denmark

Funding
This project is funded by the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the Danish Fisheries Agency.
Research area: Fisheries Technology
Research area: Fisheries Management