Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Seventh Special Report


ANNEX III

Fisheries to be monitored and minimum level of fishing effort

subject to on-board observers

1. General monitoring obligations

Monitoring schemes shall be designed on an annual basis and established to monitor cetacean by-catch, in a representative manner, in the fisheries defined in the table in paragraph 3.

Monitoring schemes shall be made sufficiently representative by adequately spreading observer coverage over the fleets, time and fishing areas.

As a general rule, monitoring schemes shall be based on a sampling strategy designed to allow the estimation of the by-catch rates of cetaceans, for the most frequent species in the by-catch per unit effort by a given fleet to achieve a coefficient of variation not exceeding 0.30.The sampling strategy shall be designed on the basis of existing information on the variability of previous by-catch observations.

2. Pilot monitoring schemes

Where, due to absence of information on variability of by-catch, the sampling strategies cannot be designed to achieve the coefficient of variation within the limit set in paragraph 1, Member States shall implement pilot on-board observer schemes for two consecutive years, starting at the dates in paragraph 3 for the concerned fisheries.

These pilot observer schemes shall be based on a sampling strategy aimed at determining the variability of by-catch which will provide the basis for the design of subsequent sampling strategies under the conditions of the paragraph 1, and shall also provide estimates of by-catch of cetaceans per unit effort, broken down by species.

The pilot schemes shall cover, at least, the following minimum value of fishing effort:

a)  For all fisheries defined in paragraph 3, with the exception of pelagic trawls (single and pair) from 1 December to 31 March in ICES sub areas VI, VII and VIII:

  Fleets of more than 400 vessels Fleets of more than 60 and less than 400 vessels Fleets of less than 60 vessels
Minimum effort covered by the pilot schemes The fishing effort of 20 vessels 5% of the fishing effort5%, covering at least 3 different vessels


b)  For pelagic trawls (single and pair) from 1 December to 31 March in ICES sub areas VI, VII and VIII:

  Fleets of more than 60 vessels Fleets of less than 60 vessels
Minimum effort covered by the pilot schemes 10% of the fishing effort10%, covering at least 3 different vessels

3. Fisheries to be monitored and monitoring starting dates

AreaGear Starting date
A. ICES sub areas VI, VII and VIII.Pelagic trawls (single and pair) 1 January 2005
B. Mediterranean Sea (of the east of line 5°36' west Pelagic trawls (single and pair)1 January 2005
C. ICES divisions VIa, VII a and b, VIIIa, b and c, and IXa Bottom-set gillnet or entangling nets using mesh sizes equal to or greater than 80 mm 1 January 2005
D. ICES sub area IV, division VIa, and sub area VII with the exception of divisions VIIc and VIIk Driftnets1 January 2006
E. ICES sub areas III a, b, c, III d south of 59N, III d north of 59N (only from 1 June to 30 September), IV and IX Pelagic trawls (single and pair)1 January 2006
F. ICES sub areas VI, VII and VIII and IX High-opening trawls1 January 2006
G. ICES sub area III b, c, dBottom-set gillnet or entangling nets using mesh sizes equal to or greater than 80 mm 1 January 2006




Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

April 2004



 
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